FilmvsfilsTell them apart

Which to use

“Film” and “fils” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#503
“Film” frequency rank
#49,670
“fils” frequency rank
50173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Film fils
Definition dünne Schicht von etwas männlicher Nachkomme: Sohn

Where the eye mixes Film and fils

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Film
4 ch
fils

Look-alike desk: Film vs fils

A purely visual mix-up. Film ([fɪlm]) and fils ([fis]) 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 - m in “Film” becomes s in “fils”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Film is recorded at frequency rank #503, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɪlm]. fils is at rank #49,670, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fis].

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 50173, this pair ranks #1,183,826 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Film vs fils

Shared letters: fil. Private to "Film": m. Private to "fils": s.

"Film" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Filmffilm · fillm · filmm · fiml · flim · iflm
  • filsffils · fills · filss · fisl · flis · ifls

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Film" and "fils" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fɪlm] versus [fis]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Film" vs "fils" - which ranks higher?
"Film" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #503 in our German list, against #49,670 for "fils". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Film" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,183,826 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Film" and "fils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fils 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 #1,183,826 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