fichuevsfichusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,789
“fichue” frequency rank
#49,086
“fichus” frequency rank
90875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fichue fichus
Definition Féminin singulier de fichu. Masculin pluriel de fichu.

Same sound, different letters: fichue vs fichus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. fichue (CVCCVV) and fichus (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
fichue
6 ch
fichus

Homophone desk: fichue vs fichus

This is the hard kind. fichue and fichus are pronounced identically (\fi.ʃy\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “fichue” becomes s in “fichus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fichue is recorded at frequency rank #41,789, classified as anadj, pronounced \fi.ʃy\. fichus is at rank #49,086, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fi.ʃy\.

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 90875, this pair ranks #4,378 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fichue vs fichus

Shared letters: cfhiu. Private to "fichue": e. Private to "fichus": s.

"fichue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "fichus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fichuefcihue · ffichue · ficchue · ficheu · fichhue · ficuhe · fihcue · ifchue
  • fichusfcihus · ffichus · ficchus · fichhus · fichsu · fichuss · ficuhs · fihcus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fichue" and "fichus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fi.ʃy\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "fichue" or "fichus" show up more?
"fichue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,789 in our French list, against #49,086 for "fichus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "fichue" / "fichus". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fichue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fichus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,378 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fichue" and "fichus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fichus vs Fuchs". 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 #4,378 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