fei vs fin, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“fei” and “fin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,027
“fei” frequency rank: #168
“fin” frequency rank: 31195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fei	fin
Definition	Variante de foi	Ce qui termine une chose, en marque la limite, en est l'extrémité.

Where the eye mixes fei and fin

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

3 ch

fei

3 ch

fin

Visual trap between fei and fin

A purely visual mix-up. fei (\fei̯\) and fin (\fɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fei is recorded at frequency rank #31,027, classified as anoun, pronounced \fei̯\. fin is at rank #168, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛ̃\.

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 31195, this pair ranks #305,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fei vs fin

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fei": e. Private to "fin": n.

"fei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "fin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fei" for "fin" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\fei̯\ versus \fɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "fei" or "fin"?

"fin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #168 in our French list, against #31,027 for "fei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "fei" and "fin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "fei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "fin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #305,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"fei" and "fin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fei". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #305,372 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.