fichervsFingerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ficher is a verb, Finger is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ficher” is a verb and “Finger” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,538
“ficher” frequency rank
#49,656
“Finger” frequency rank
84194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ficher Finger
Definition Faire entrer par la pointe. Doigt.

Where the eye mixes ficher and Finger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ficher and Finger 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
Finger

Why the eye confuses ficher with Finger

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ficher is \fi.ʃe\ while Finger is \ˈfɪŋ.ɐ\. 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 84194, 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\. Finger is at rank #49,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfɪŋ.ɐ\.

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 84194, this pair ranks #13,423 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ficher vs Finger

Shared letters: efir. Private to "ficher": ch. Private to "Finger": gn.

"ficher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Finger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ficherfciher · fficher · ficcher · ficehr · ficherr · fichher · fichre · fihcer
  • Fingerffinger · figner · finegr · fingerr · fingger · fingre · finnger · fniger

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ficher" for "Finger" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ficher" is a verb and "Finger" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ficher" or "Finger"?
"ficher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,538 in our French list, against #49,656 for "Finger". 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 "Finger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,423 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ficher" and "Finger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fincher 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 #13,423 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