filsvsflTell them apart

Quick tell: fils is a noun, fl is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fils” is a noun and “fl” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,670
“fils” frequency rank
#13,360
“fl” frequency rank
63030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fils fl
Definition männlicher Nachkomme: Sohn Femtoliter (= 10⁻¹⁵ l, ein billiardstel Liter)

Letter map: fils vs fl

Shared letters muted; letters that set fils and fl apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
fils
2 ch
fl

Part-of-speech tell for fils / fl

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fils is anoun and flanabbrev. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63030, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fils is recorded at frequency rank #49,670, classified as anoun, pronounced [fis]. fl is at rank #13,360, tagged as anabbrev.

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 63030, this pair ranks #691,320 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fils vs fl

Shared letters: fl. Private to "fils": is. Private to "fl": -.

"fils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fl" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filsffils · fills · filss · fisl · flis · ifls

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fils" for "fl" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fils" is a noun and "fl" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fils" or "fl"?
"fl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,360 in our German list, against #49,670 for "fils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "fils" vs "fl" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #691,320 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fils" and "fl" 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 #691,320 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