fem vs fi, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“fem” is a num and “fi” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,170
“fem” frequency rank: #8,710
“fi” frequency rank: 51880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fem	fi
Definition	fünf	fein

Letter map: fem vs fi

Shared letters muted; letters that set fem and fi apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

fem

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for fem / fi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fem is anum and fianadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fem is recorded at frequency rank #43,170, classified as anum, pronounced [fɛmˀ]. fi is at rank #8,710, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 51880, this pair ranks #1,118,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fem vs fi

Shared letters: f. Private to "fem": em. Private to "fi": i.

"fem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fi" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fem" for "fi" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fem" is a num and "fi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fem" or "fi"?

"fi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,710 in our German list, against #43,170 for "fem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "fem" and "fi". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "fem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "fi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,118,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"fem" and "fi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fem vs firm". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,118,465 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.