Which to use
“finir” and “fixer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,291
- “finir” frequency rank
- #5,246
- “fixer” frequency rank
- 6537
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | finir | fixer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Achever, terminer, arriver à échéance, cesser, finaliser. | Attacher, affermir, rendre immobile, maintenir en place. |
Where the eye mixes finir and fixer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between finir and fixer
A purely visual mix-up. finir (\fi.niʁ\) and fixer (\fi.kse\) 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 6537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
finir is recorded at frequency rank #1,291, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.niʁ\. fixer is at rank #5,246, tagged as averb, pronounced \fi.kse\.
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 6537, this pair ranks #425,949 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of finir vs fixer
Shared letters: fir. Private to "finir": n. Private to "fixer": ex.
"finir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fixer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "finir" and "fixer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "finir" or "fixer" 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 "finir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fixer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,949 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "finir" and "fixer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Finger vs fixer". 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 #425,949 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.