Which to use
“fumes” and “fumez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,870
- “fumes” frequency rank
- #32,824
- “fumez” frequency rank
- 55694
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fumes | fumez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de fumer. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fumer. |
Where the eye mixes fumes and fumez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fumes and fumez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: fumes vs fumez
A purely visual mix-up. fumes (\fym\) and fumez (\fy.me\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - s in “fumes” becomes z in “fumez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fumes is recorded at frequency rank #22,870, classified as averb, pronounced \fym\. fumez is at rank #32,824, tagged as averb, pronounced \fy.me\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 55694, this pair ranks #125,809 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fumes vs fumez
Shared letters: efmu. Private to "fumes": s. Private to "fumez": z.
"fumes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fumez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fumes" and "fumez" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "fumes" or "fumez" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fumes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fumez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,809 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fumes" and "fumez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fumez". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #125,809 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.