fiesvsFiletWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fies is a adjective, Filet is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fies” is an adjective and “Filet” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,292
“fies” frequency rank
#48,889
“Filet” frequency rank
66181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fies Filet
Definition Ekel erregend unangenehm schmales, meist zartes Fleischstück von Rind, Schwein, Huhn oder entgrätetem Fisch

Where the eye mixes fies and Filet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fies runs 4 letters (CVVC) against Filet's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
fies
5 ch
Filet

Look-alike desk: fies vs Filet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fies is [fiːs] while Filet is [fiˈleː]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fies is recorded at frequency rank #17,292, classified as anadj, pronounced [fiːs]. Filet is at rank #48,889, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fiˈleː].

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 66181, this pair ranks #581,859 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fies vs Filet

Shared letters: efi. Private to "fies": s. Private to "Filet": lt.

"fies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Filet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fies ← feis · ffies · fiess · fise · ifes
  • Filet ← ffilet · fielt · filett · fillet · filte · fliet · iflet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fies" and "Filet" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fies" is an adjective and "Filet" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fies" or "Filet"?
"fies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,292 in our German list, against #48,889 for "Filet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "fies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Filet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #581,859 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fies" and "Filet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Filet 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

Confusion rank #581,859 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list