fem vs fía, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“fem” is a num and “fía” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,915
“fem” frequency rank: #40,850
“fía” frequency rank: 82765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fem	fía
Definition	Cinco.	Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de fiar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fem and fía apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

fem

3 ch

fía

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fem is [fɛmˀ] while fía is [ˈfia]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fem is recorded at frequency rank #41,915, classified as anum, pronounced [fɛmˀ]. fía is at rank #40,850, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfia].

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 82765, this pair ranks #8,887 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fem vs fía

Shared letters: f. Private to "fem": em. Private to "fía": aí.

"fem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fía" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

fem#41,915

fía#40,850

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fem" and "fía" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fem" is a num and "fía" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fem" or "fía"?

"fía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,850 in our Spanish list, against #41,915 for "fem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fem vs fía

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a num, it's “fem”; for a verb, it's “fía”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fem” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable