Which to use
“fils” and “fois” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #337
- “fils” frequency rank
- #104
- “fois” frequency rank
- 441
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fils | fois |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tout être humain de genre masculin considéré par rapport à son père et à sa mère, ou à un des deux seulement. | Nom qui se joint à un adjectif numéral pour indiquer qu’un fait s’est produit ou s’est répété. |
Where the eye mixes fils and fois
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fils vs fois
A purely visual mix-up. fils (\fis\) and fois (\fwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fils is recorded at frequency rank #337, classified as anoun, pronounced \fis\. fois is at rank #104, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.
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 441, this pair ranks #439,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fils vs fois
Shared letters: fis. Private to "fils": l. Private to "fois": o.
"fils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fils" for "fois" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fils" vs "fois" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fils" and "fois" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fils" and "fois" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fils". 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 #439,637 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.