Which to use
“fila” is a verb and “filant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,763
- “fila” frequency rank
- #41,790
- “filant” frequency rank
- 88553
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fila | filant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de filer. | Qui coule sans se diviser et s’allonge en une apparence de fil continu. |
Where the eye mixes fila and filant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fila runs 4 letters (CVCV) against filant's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fila and filant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fila is \fi.la\ while filant is \fi.lɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fila” sits inside “filant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fila is recorded at frequency rank #46,763, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.la\. filant is at rank #41,790, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fi.lɑ̃\.
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 88553, this pair ranks #6,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fila vs filant
Shared letters: afil. Private to "fila": -. Private to "filant": nt.
"fila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "filant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fila" and "filant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fila" or "filant"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fila" and "filant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "filant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fila" and "filant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fila vs filez". 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 #6,848 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.