Which to use
“fichus” is an adjective and “friches” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,086
- “fichus” frequency rank
- #39,308
- “friches” frequency rank
- 88394
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fichus | friches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de fichu. | Pluriel de friche. |
Where the eye mixes fichus and friches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fichus 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.
Look-alike desk: fichus vs friches
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fichus is \fi.ʃy\ while friches is \fʁiʃ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fichus is recorded at frequency rank #49,086, classified as anadj, pronounced \fi.ʃy\. 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 88394, this pair ranks #7,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fichus vs friches
Shared letters: cfhis. Private to "fichus": u. Private to "friches": er.
"fichus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "friches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fichus" for "friches" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fichus" vs "friches" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fichus" 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 #7,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fichus" and "friches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fichue vs fichus". 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 #7,052 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.