Which to use
“filiale” and “fille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,981
- “filiale” frequency rank
- #312
- “fille” frequency rank
- 6293
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filiale | fille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Société appartenant à une société mère. | Enfant de genre féminin, par opposition à garçon ; aussi appelée fillette ou petite fille. |
Where the eye mixes filiale and fille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. filiale runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against fille's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between filiale and fille
A purely visual mix-up. filiale (\fi.ljal\) and fille (\fij\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filiale is recorded at frequency rank #5,981, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.ljal\. fille is at rank #312, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fij\.
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 6293, this pair ranks #426,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of filiale vs fille
Shared letters: efil. Private to "filiale": a. Private to "fille": -.
"filiale" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "fille" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "filiale" and "fille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "filiale" or "fille" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "filiale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #426,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filiale" and "fille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fille". 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 #426,639 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.