ficvsfogConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,762
“fic” frequency rank
#46,768
“fog” frequency rank
93530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fic fog
Definition Verrue à pédoncule étroit ressemblant à une figue. Brouillard, brume.

Where the eye mixes fic and fog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. fic and fog follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
fic
3 ch
fog

Look-alike desk: fic vs fog

A purely visual mix-up. fic (\fik\) and fog (\fɔɡ\) 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 93530, 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\. fog is at rank #46,768, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔɡ\.

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 93530, this pair ranks #2,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fic vs fog

Shared letters: f. Private to "fic": ci. Private to "fog": go.

"fic" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fog" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fic" for "fog" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fik\ versus \fɔɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fic" vs "fog" - which ranks higher?
"fic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,762 in our French list, against #46,768 for "fog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fic" and "fog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fog". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,212 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list