fillesvsfixésWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: filles is a noun, fixés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“filles” is a noun and “fixés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#723
“filles” frequency rank
#9,834
“fixés” frequency rank
10557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filles fixés
Definition Pluriel de fille. Masculin pluriel de fixé.

Where the eye mixes filles and fixés

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

6 ch
filles
5 ch
fixés

Why the eye confuses filles with fixés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: filles is \fij\ while fixés is \fik.se\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filles is recorded at frequency rank #723, classified as anoun, pronounced \fij\. fixés is at rank #9,834, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fik.se\.

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 10557, this pair ranks #412,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of filles vs fixés

Shared letters: fis. Private to "filles": el. Private to "fixés": .

"filles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "fixés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fillesffilles · filels · filless · fillse · fliles · iflles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "filles" and "fixés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "filles" is a noun and "fixés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "filles" or "fixés" show up more?
"filles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #723 in our French list, against #9,834 for "fixés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "filles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fixés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filles" and "fixés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fixés". 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 #412,532 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