Which to use
“fines” and “finish” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,694
- “fines” frequency rank
- #35,946
- “finish” frequency rank
- 43640
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fines | finish |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Moment ultime d'une compétition sportive, où se décide la victoire. |
Where the eye mixes fines and finish
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fines runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against finish's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fines and finish
A purely visual mix-up. fines (\fin\) and finish (\fi.niʃ\) 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 43640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fines is recorded at frequency rank #7,694, classified as anoun, pronounced \fin\. finish is at rank #35,946, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fi.niʃ\.
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 43640, this pair ranks #216,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fines vs finish
Shared letters: fins. Private to "fines": e. Private to "finish": h.
"fines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "finish" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fines" for "finish" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fines" or "finish" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fines" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "finish" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #216,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fines" and "finish" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finch vs finish". 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 #216,506 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.