figervsfixeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: figer is a verb, fixe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“figer” is a verb and “fixe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,801
“figer” frequency rank
#2,615
“fixe” frequency rank
42416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figer fixe
Definition Congeler, coaguler, condenser par le froid, par le refroidissement. Il se dit surtout en parlant des huiles. Immobile.

Where the eye mixes figer and fixe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
figer
4 ch
fixe

Visual trap between figer and fixe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: figer is \fi.ʒe\ while fixe is \fiks\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

figer is recorded at frequency rank #39,801, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.ʒe\. fixe is at rank #2,615, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fiks\.

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 42416, this pair ranks #225,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of figer vs fixe

Shared letters: efi. Private to "figer": gr. Private to "fixe": x.

"figer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fixe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • figerffiger · fgier · fiegr · figerr · figger · figre · ifger
  • fixeffixe · fiex · fixxe · fxie · ifxe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "figer" and "fixe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "figer" is a verb and "fixe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "figer" or "fixe" show up more?
"fixe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,615 in our French list, against #39,801 for "figer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "figer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fixe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figer" and "fixe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "figer 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 #225,759 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