fixevsfoieTell them apart

Quick tell: fixe is a adjective, foie is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fixe” is an adjective and “foie” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,615
“fixe” frequency rank
#5,041
“foie” frequency rank
7656
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fixe foie
Definition Immobile. Organe présent chez l’être humain et chez la plupart des vertébrés, produisant la bile. Il sert, entre autres, à régler le métabolisme des glucides.

Where the eye mixes fixe and foie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fixe
4 ch
foie

Why the eye confuses fixe with foie

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fixe is \fiks\ while foie is \fwa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fixe is recorded at frequency rank #2,615, classified as anadj, pronounced \fiks\. foie is at rank #5,041, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwa\.

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 7656, this pair ranks #422,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fixe vs foie

Shared letters: efi. Private to "fixe": x. Private to "foie": o.

"fixe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "foie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fixeffixe · fiex · fixxe · fxie · ifxe
  • foieffoie · fioe · foei · ofie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fixe" and "foie" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fixe" is an adjective and "foie" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fixe" vs "foie" - which ranks higher?
"fixe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,615 in our French list, against #5,041 for "foie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fixe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fixe" and "foie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs foie". 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 #422,526 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