fichesvsfrichesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,320
“fiches” frequency rank
#39,308
“friches” frequency rank
46628
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fiches friches
Definition Pluriel de fiche. Pluriel de friche.

Where the eye mixes fiches and friches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fiches runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against friches's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fiches
7 ch
friches

Visual trap between fiches and friches

A purely visual mix-up. fiches (\fiʃ\) and friches (\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 46628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fiches is recorded at frequency rank #7,320, classified as anoun, pronounced \fiʃ\. friches is at rank #39,308, 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 46628, this pair ranks #193,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fiches vs friches

Shared letters: cefhis. Private to "fiches": -. Private to "friches": r.

"fiches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "friches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiches ← fcihes · ffiches · ficches · ficehs · fichess · fichhes · fichse · fihces
  • friches ← ffriches · firches · frcihes · fricches · fricehs · frichess · frichhes · frichse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fiches" and "friches" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fiʃ\ versus \fʁiʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fiches" or "friches" show up more?
"fiches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,320 in our French list, against #39,308 for "friches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "fiches" and "friches" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fiches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "friches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fiches" and "friches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fichus vs friches". 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 #193,427 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