finevsfixedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fine is a adjective, fixed is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fine” is an adjective and “fixed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,086
“fine” frequency rank
#46,645
“fixed” frequency rank
61731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fine fixed
Definition ausgezeichnet Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs fix

Letter map: fine vs fixed

Shared letters muted; letters that set fine and fixed apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. fine runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fixed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
fine
5 ch
fixed

Role in the sentence - fine and fixed

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fine is anadjective and fixedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fine is recorded at frequency rank #15,086, classified as anadj, pronounced [faɪn]. fixed is at rank #46,645, tagged as averb, 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 61731, this pair ranks #738,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fine vs fixed

Shared letters: efi. Private to "fine": n. Private to "fixed": dx.

"fine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fixed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fine ← ffine · fnie · ifne
  • fixed ← ffixed · fiexd · fixde · fixedd · fixxed · fxied · ifxed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fine" and "fixed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fine" is an adjective and "fixed" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fine" vs "fixed" - which ranks higher?
"fine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,086 in our German list, against #46,645 for "fixed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fine" and "fixed".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fixed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #738,737 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fine" and "fixed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fixed vs puzzles". 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 #738,737 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