Which to use
“ficher” is a verb and “friche” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,538
- “ficher” frequency rank
- #26,735
- “friche” frequency rank
- 61273
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ficher | friche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faire entrer par la pointe. | Terrain inculte, soit qu’on ne l’ait jamais cultivé, soit que la culture en ait été interrompue. |
Where the eye mixes ficher and friche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ficher (CVCCVC) and friche (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses ficher with friche
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ficher is \fi.ʃe\ while friche is \fʁiʃ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61273, 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\. 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 61273, this pair ranks #93,131 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ficher vs friche
Shared letters: cefhir. Private to "ficher": -. Private to "friche": -.
"ficher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "friche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ficher" for "friche" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ficher" or "friche" show up more?
What to do next
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 "friche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #93,131 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ficher" and "friche" 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 #93,131 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.