fritesvsfritzWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“frites” and “fritz” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,697
“frites” frequency rank
#18,490
“fritz” frequency rank
26187
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frites fritz
Definition Féminin pluriel de frit. Relatif aux Allemands et en particulier aux soldats allemands.

Where the eye mixes frites and fritz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
frites
5 ch
fritz

Why the eye confuses frites with fritz

A purely visual mix-up. frites (\fʁit\) and fritz (\fʁits\) 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 26187, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frites is recorded at frequency rank #7,697, classified as anadj, pronounced \fʁit\. fritz is at rank #18,490, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁits\.

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 26187, this pair ranks #336,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of frites vs fritz

Shared letters: firt. Private to "frites": es. Private to "fritz": z.

"frites" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "fritz" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fritesffrites · firtes · friets · fritess · fritse · frittes · frrites · frties
  • fritzffritz · firtz · frittz · fritzz · frizt · frritz · frtiz · rfitz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "frites" and "fritz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fʁit\ versus \fʁits\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "frites" or "fritz"?
"frites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,697 in our French list, against #18,490 for "fritz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "frites" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fritz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #336,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frites" and "fritz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fries vs fritz". 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 #336,610 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