fichavsfishConfusable pair

Quick tell: ficha is a verb, fish is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,988
“ficha” frequency rank
#18,872
“fish” frequency rank
22860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ficha fish
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo fichar de peixe, relacionado a peixe:

Where the eye mixes ficha and fish

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

5 ch
ficha
4 ch
fish

Why the eye confuses ficha with fish

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ficha is /ˈfi.ʃɐ/ while fish is /ˈfɪʃ/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ficha is recorded at frequency rank #3,988, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfi.ʃɐ/. fish is at rank #18,872, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɪʃ/.

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 22860, this pair ranks #47,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ficha vs fish

Shared letters: fhi. Private to "ficha": ac. Private to "fish": s.

"ficha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fish" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fichafciha · fficha · ficah · ficcha · fichha · fihca · ifcha
  • fishffish · fihs · fishh · fissh · fsih · ifsh

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ficha" and "fish" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ficha" is a verb and "fish" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ficha" or "fish" show up more?
"ficha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,988 in our Portuguese list, against #18,872 for "fish". 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 "ficha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fish" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ficha" and "fish" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fish vs friso". 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 #47,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list