Hello Fansico, When referring to literary works 'fictional' means the nature of those works invented by the imagination in the form of a novel or a short story. 'Fictional' could also refer to something being a lie and in law acts it refers to something assumed to be true for a certain purpose,though probably false. 'Fictitious' could relate to those characters of fictional works that are created by imagination. It could also mean false, assumed , not genuine. 'Fictive' is rarely used and means related to fiction or able to create it . So the words in a positive sense relate to works of literary or anything that is imaginary, fanciful or mythical ,while in a negative sense it refers to something false, artificial,unreal or untrue.

The three do have some similarities, and sometimes are used interchangeably. Of the three, fictive is the least common. Here are some areas that the words could be used a little more distinctly. Fictional is the the word used mostly to talk about literary works to make a difference between biography/history, true crime, etc. Made up stories and characters are all fictional. Fictitious is also made up, but it can be used to talk about something made up to deceive someone. Someone might hand in a fictitious resume when applying for a job. Something is not just "unreal"; it's false. A fictitious report might make the board of directors vote one way or another in a company. Someone can give police a fictitious name if they are stopped. In this case, people could say "fictional" but I think "fictitious" is more precise. Fictive could be used in the other situations as well, but I've heard it used mostly for feelings that aren't true. Someone might have a fictive concern for his terminally ill colleague, but really he is hoping to take the colleague's job. A set phrase with fictive is "fictive kinship," a familial relationship that is "made up". I have a lot of students who will call someone "auntie" even though the two people are not related by blood or marriage. It could be people who were neighbors back in their home country and now they treat each other like aunts and nieces do.

All three words come down to the same meaning. To be fictive, means to use the imagination, it's not rreal. We have fictional characters in books, meaning the characters where made up. Again by using the imagination. Fictitous also means made up by the imagination.. If we put this in book form, we can talk about the fictional characters in the book, the fictive house they live in and the whole book is fictitous, meaning it was made up. Hope this answered your question.