Which to use
“fils” and “fines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #337
- “fils” frequency rank
- #7,694
- “fines” frequency rank
- 8031
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fils | fines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tout être humain de genre masculin considéré par rapport à son père et à sa mère, ou à un des deux seulement. | Granulat composé d’éléments de très petites dimensions utilisé soit comme charge de remplissage pour augmenter la compacité notamment d'un béton, d'un sol, soit comme constituant de certains liants hydrauliques. |
Where the eye mixes fils and fines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fils runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fines's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fils and fines
A purely visual mix-up. fils (\fis\) and fines (\fin\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8031, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fils is recorded at frequency rank #337, classified as anoun, pronounced \fis\. fines is at rank #7,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fin\.
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 8031, this pair ranks #421,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fils vs fines
Shared letters: fis. Private to "fils": l. Private to "fines": en.
"fils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fils" and "fines" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fils" vs "fines" - which ranks higher?
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 "fils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #421,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fils" and "fines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fines vs Finger". 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 #421,346 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.