finiesvsfinisseWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: finies is a adjective, finisse is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“finies” is an adjective and “finisse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,321
“finies” frequency rank
#10,872
“finisse” frequency rank
32193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature finies finisse
Definition Féminin pluriel de fini. Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de finir.

Where the eye mixes finies and finisse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. finies runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against finisse's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
finies
7 ch
finisse

Visual trap between finies and finisse

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: finies is \fi.ni\ while finisse is \fi.nis\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

finies is recorded at frequency rank #21,321, classified as anadj, pronounced \fi.ni\. finisse is at rank #10,872, tagged as averb, pronounced \fi.nis\.

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 32193, this pair ranks #298,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of finies vs finisse

Shared letters: efins. Private to "finies": -. Private to "finisse": -.

"finies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "finisse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • finies ← ffinies · fiines · fineis · finiess · finnies · fniies · ifnies
  • finisse ← ffinisse · fiinsse · finise · finises · finnisse · finsise · fniisse · ifnisse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "finies" for "finisse" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "finies" is an adjective and "finisse" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "finies" or "finisse"?
"finisse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,872 in our French list, against #21,321 for "finies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "finies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "finisse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #298,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "finies" and "finisse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Finger vs finies". 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 #298,890 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list