fic vs fiche, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#46,762
“fic” frequency rank: #1,917
“fiche” frequency rank: 48679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fic	fiche
Definition	Verrue à pédoncule étroit ressemblant à une figue.	Action de ficher, d’enfoncer ; quantité dont on enfonce dans le sol un pieu de fondation.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fic and fiche apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

fic

5 ch

fiche

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fic (\fik\) and fiche (\fiʃ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fic” sits inside “fiche”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fic is recorded at frequency rank #46,762, classified as anoun, pronounced \fik\. fiche is at rank #1,917, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fiʃ\.

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 48679, this pair ranks #176,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fic vs fiche

Shared letters: cfi. Private to "fic": -. Private to "fiche": eh.

"fic" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fiche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

fiche ← fcihe · ffiche · ficche · ficeh · fichhe · fihce · ifche

Frequency comparison

fic#46,762

fiche#1,917

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fic" and "fiche" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "fic" or "fiche"?

"fiche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,917 in our French list, against #46,762 for "fic". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering fic vs fiche

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fic” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable