figovsfilWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“figo” and “fil” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,609
“figo” frequency rank
#35,592
“fil” frequency rank
68201
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figo fil
Definition figo fio

Where the eye mixes figo and fil

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

4 ch
figo
3 ch
fil

Visual trap between figo and fil

A purely visual mix-up. figo (/ˈfi.ɡɔ/) and fil (/fil/) 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 68201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

figo is recorded at frequency rank #32,609, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfi.ɡɔ/. fil is at rank #35,592, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fil/.

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 68201, this pair ranks #4,361 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of figo vs fil

Shared letters: fi. Private to "figo": go. Private to "fil": l.

"figo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fil" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • figoffigo · fgio · figgo · fiog · ifgo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "figo" and "fil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfi.ɡɔ/ versus /fil/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "figo" or "fil"?
"figo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,609 in our Portuguese list, against #35,592 for "fil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "figo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,361 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figo" and "fil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fil vs filão". 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 #4,361 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