FansvsfisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Fans is a noun, fis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Fans” is a noun and “fis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,128
“Fans” frequency rank
#26,408
“fis” frequency rank
27536
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fans fis
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Fan 1. Person Singulra Indikativ historisches Perfekt Aktiv des Verbs faire

Where the eye mixes Fans and fis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Fans
3 ch
fis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Fans is [fɛns] while fis is [fi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fans is recorded at frequency rank #1,128, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɛns]. fis is at rank #26,408, tagged as averb, pronounced [fi].

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 27536, this pair ranks #1,800,154 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fans vs fis

Shared letters: fs. Private to "Fans": an. Private to "fis": i.

"Fans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fansafns · fanns · fanss · fasn · ffans · fnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fans" and "fis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fans" is a noun and "fis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Fans" or "fis"?
"Fans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,128 in our German list, against #26,408 for "fis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Fans" and "fis". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,800,154 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fans" and "fis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fis vs fist". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list