firmevsfiveWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: firme is a adjective, five is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“firme” is an adjective and “five” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,343
“firme” frequency rank
#24,874
“five” frequency rank
27217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature firme five
Definition Difícil de ser movido o desplazado. Palabra clave radiofónica del ICAO y NATO para la cifra 5.

Where the eye mixes firme and five

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

5 ch
firme
4 ch
five

Why the eye confuses firme with five

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: firme is [ˈfiɾme] while five is [ˈfai̯f]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

firme is recorded at frequency rank #2,343, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfiɾme]. five is at rank #24,874, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfai̯f].

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 27217, this pair ranks #227,918 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of firme vs five

Shared letters: efi. Private to "firme": mr. Private to "five": v.

"firme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "five" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • firmeffirme · fimre · firem · firmme · firrme · frime · ifrme
  • fiveffive · fibe · fiev · fivve · fvie · ifve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "firme" for "five" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "firme" is an adjective and "five" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "firme" or "five" show up more?
"firme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,343 in our Spanish list, against #24,874 for "five". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "firme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "five" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,918 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "firme" and "five" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fideo vs five". 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 #227,918 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