Which to use
“fend” is a verb and “fine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,951
- “fend” frequency rank
- #3,919
- “fine” frequency rank
- 32870
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fend | fine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de fendre. | Terme utilisé communément dans l’imprimerie et par les typographes pour désigner une espace insécable, mais d'une largeur fixe non justifiable (en cas de justification des lignes complètes de paragraphes entre les deux marges), et plus fine (entre un sixième et un quart de cadratin, selon les polices de caractères utilisées) que l’espace normale (un demi cadratin) séparant les mots ; la fine est utilisée soit en juxtaposition avec certains signes de ponctuation, soit aussi (dans les conventions typographiques françaises) comme séparateur de groupes de chiffres dans un nombre ou un numéro. |
Where the eye mixes fend and fine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fend vs fine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fend is \fɑ̃\ while fine is \fin\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fend is recorded at frequency rank #28,951, classified as averb, pronounced \fɑ̃\. fine is at rank #3,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fin\.
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 32870, this pair ranks #294,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fend vs fine
Shared letters: efn. Private to "fend": d. Private to "fine": i.
"fend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fend" and "fine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fend" or "fine" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fend" and "fine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fend". 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 #294,411 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.