feelvsfilTell them apart

Quick tell: feel is a verb, fil is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“feel” is a verb and “fil” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,994
“feel” frequency rank
#38,124
“fil” frequency rank
59118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feel fil
Definition Sentir. Elefante.

Same sound, different letters: feel vs fil

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

4 ch
feel
3 ch
fil

Ear matches; page differs - feel and fil

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: feel and fil carry the same recorded pronunciation, /fiːl/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feel is recorded at frequency rank #20,994, classified as averb, pronounced /fiːl/. fil is at rank #38,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfil].

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 59118, this pair ranks #63,847 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feel vs fil

Shared letters: fl. Private to "feel": e. Private to "fil": i.

"feel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fil" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feelefel · feell · fel · fele · ffeel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feel" for "fil" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feel" is a verb and "fil" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "feel" or "fil" show up more?
"feel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,994 in our Spanish list, against #38,124 for "fil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "feel" / "fil". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,847 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feel" and "fil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fil vs filos". 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 #63,847 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list