fisvsfiveWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,094
“fis” frequency rank
#24,874
“five” frequency rank
61968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fis five
Definition Primera persona del singular (je) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de faire. Palabra clave radiofónica del ICAO y NATO para la cifra 5.

Where the eye mixes fis and five

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
fis
4 ch
five

Look-alike desk: fis vs five

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fis is [fi] 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fis is recorded at frequency rank #37,094, classified as averb, pronounced [fi]. 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 61968, this pair ranks #53,665 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fis vs five

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fis": s. Private to "five": ev.

"fis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "five" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiveffive · fibe · fiev · fivve · fvie · ifve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fis" for "five" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fis" is a verb and "five" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fis" or "five"?
"five" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,874 in our Spanish list, against #37,094 for "fis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fis" 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 #53,665 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fis" and "five" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filos vs fis". 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 #53,665 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