Which to use
“fille” is a noun and “fle” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #312
- “fille” frequency rank
- #39,300
- “fle” frequency rank
- 39612
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fille | fle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enfant de genre féminin, par opposition à garçon ; aussi appelée fillette ou petite fille. | Dormir. |
Where the eye mixes fille and fle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fille runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fle's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fille with fle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fille is \fij\ while fle is \ˈfle\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fille is recorded at frequency rank #312, classified as anoun, pronounced \fij\. fle is at rank #39,300, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈfle\.
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 39612, this pair ranks #246,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fille vs fle
Shared letters: efl. Private to "fille": i. Private to "fle": -.
"fille" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "fle" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fille ← ffille · filel · flile · iflle
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fille" and "fle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fille" or "fle" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #246,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fille" and "fle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fle". 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 #246,679 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.