Which to use
“filons” is a verb and “frelons” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,812
- “filons” frequency rank
- #45,056
- “frelons” frequency rank
- 72868
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filons | frelons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe filer. | Pluriel de frelon. |
Where the eye mixes filons and frelons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. filons runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against frelons's 7 (CCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between filons and frelons
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: filons is \fi.lɔ̃\ while frelons is \fʁə.lɔ̃\. 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 72868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filons is recorded at frequency rank #27,812, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.lɔ̃\. frelons is at rank #45,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁə.lɔ̃\.
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 72868, this pair ranks #42,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of filons vs frelons
Shared letters: flnos. Private to "filons": i. Private to "frelons": er.
"filons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "frelons" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "filons" for "frelons" ever safe?
Frequency check: "filons" vs "frelons" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "filons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frelons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filons" and "frelons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fêtons vs frelons". 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 #42,482 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.