fichervsfilmerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,538
“ficher” frequency rank
#7,962
“filmer” frequency rank
42500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ficher filmer
Definition Faire entrer par la pointe. Enregistrer une suite d'images animées sur une pellicule sensible à l'aide d'une caméra (le son est souvent enregistré en même temps).

Where the eye mixes ficher and filmer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ficher and filmer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
ficher
6 ch
filmer

Why the eye confuses ficher with filmer

A purely visual mix-up. ficher (\fi.ʃe\) and filmer (\fil.me\) 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 42500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ficher is recorded at frequency rank #34,538, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.ʃe\. filmer is at rank #7,962, tagged as averb, pronounced \fil.me\.

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 42500, this pair ranks #225,139 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ficher vs filmer

Shared letters: efir. Private to "ficher": ch. Private to "filmer": lm.

"ficher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "filmer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ficher ← fciher · fficher · ficcher · ficehr · ficherr · fichher · fichre · fihcer
  • filmer ← ffilmer · filemr · fillmer · filmerr · filmmer · filmre · fimler · flimer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ficher" and "filmer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fi.ʃe\ versus \fil.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ficher" or "filmer"?
"filmer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,962 in our French list, against #34,538 for "ficher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ficher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "filmer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,139 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ficher" and "filmer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ficher vs Finger". 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 #225,139 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