Which to use
“fils” is a noun and “fixés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #337
- “fils” frequency rank
- #9,834
- “fixés” frequency rank
- 10171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fils | fixés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tout être humain de genre masculin considéré par rapport à son père et à sa mère, ou à un des deux seulement. | Masculin pluriel de fixé. |
Where the eye mixes fils and fixés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fils runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fixés's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fils vs fixés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fils is \fis\ 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 10171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fils is recorded at frequency rank #337, classified as anoun, pronounced \fis\. 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 10171, this pair ranks #413,972 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fils vs fixés
Shared letters: fis. Private to "fils": l. Private to "fixés": xé.
"fils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fixés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fils ← ffils · fills · filss · fisl · flis · ifls
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fils" and "fixés" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "fils" or "fixés" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fils" 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 #413,972 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fils" 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 #413,972 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.