Which to use
“fiche” and “friche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,917
- “fiche” frequency rank
- #26,735
- “friche” frequency rank
- 28652
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fiche | friche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de ficher, d’enfoncer ; quantité dont on enfonce dans le sol un pieu de fondation. | Terrain inculte, soit qu’on ne l’ait jamais cultivé, soit que la culture en ait été interrompue. |
Where the eye mixes fiche and friche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fiche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against friche's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fiche with friche
A purely visual mix-up. fiche (\fiʃ\) and friche (\fʁiʃ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fiche is recorded at frequency rank #1,917, classified as anoun, pronounced \fiʃ\. friche is at rank #26,735, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁiʃ\.
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 28652, this pair ranks #321,504 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fiche vs friche
Shared letters: cefhi. Private to "fiche": -. Private to "friche": r.
"fiche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "friche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fiche" and "friche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fiche" or "friche" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fiche" and "friche" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fiche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "friche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,504 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fiche" and "friche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "friche vs fringe". 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 #321,504 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.