filavsfixWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fila is a verb, fix is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fila” is a verb and “fix” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,763
“fila” frequency rank
#23,870
“fix” frequency rank
70633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fila fix
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de filer. Dose de drogue, généralement injectée par intraveineuse.

Where the eye mixes fila and fix

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fila
3 ch
fix

Why the eye confuses fila with fix

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fila is \fi.la\ while fix 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70633, 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\. fix is at rank #23,870, tagged as anoun, 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 70633, this pair ranks #50,633 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fila vs fix

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fila": al. Private to "fix": x.

"fila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fix" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filaffila · filla · flia · ifla

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fila" and "fix" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fila" is a verb and "fix" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fila" vs "fix" - which ranks higher?
"fix" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,870 in our French list, against #46,763 for "fila". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fix" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,633 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fila" and "fix" 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 #50,633 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