Which to use
“fines” and “fontes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,694
- “fines” frequency rank
- #46,178
- “fontes” frequency rank
- 53872
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fines | fontes |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Fourreau de cuir pour les pistolets. |
Where the eye mixes fines and fontes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fines runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against fontes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fines with fontes
A purely visual mix-up. fines (\fin\) and fontes (\fɔ̃t\) 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 53872, 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\. fontes is at rank #46,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃t\.
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 53872, this pair ranks #137,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fines vs fontes
Shared letters: efns. Private to "fines": i. Private to "fontes": ot.
"fines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fontes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fines" and "fontes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fines" or "fontes" show up more?
Useful next steps
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 "fontes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #137,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fines" and "fontes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fontes". 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 #137,852 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.