fiscvsfusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fisc is a noun, fus is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fisc” is a noun and “fus” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,410
“fisc” frequency rank
#19,029
“fus” frequency rank
30439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fisc fus
Definition Trésor de l’État. Première personne du singulier du passé simple de être.

Where the eye mixes fisc and fus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fisc
3 ch
fus

Why the eye confuses fisc with fus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fisc is \fisk\ while fus is \fy\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fisc is recorded at frequency rank #11,410, classified as anoun, pronounced \fisk\. fus is at rank #19,029, tagged as averb, pronounced \fy\.

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 30439, this pair ranks #310,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fisc vs fus

Shared letters: fs. Private to "fisc": ci. Private to "fus": u.

"fisc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiscffisc · fics · fiscc · fissc · fsic · ifsc

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fisc" and "fus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fisc" is a noun and "fus" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "fisc" or "fus" show up more?
"fisc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,410 in our French list, against #19,029 for "fus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fisc" and "fus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fisc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fisc" and "fus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fus". 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 #310,331 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