notesvsnotreTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#21,718
“notes” frequency rank
#22,838
“notre” frequency rank
44556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature notes notre
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs notar unser, unsere

Where the eye mixes notes and notre

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

5 ch
notes
5 ch
notre

Look-alike desk: notes vs notre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: notes is [ˈnɔ.tɪs] while notre is [nɔtʁ]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

notes is recorded at frequency rank #21,718, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈnɔ.tɪs]. notre is at rank #22,838, tagged as anadj, pronounced [nɔtʁ].

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 44556, this pair ranks #1,382,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of notes vs notre

Shared letters: enot. Private to "notes": s. Private to "notre": r.

"notes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "notre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • notesnnotes · noets · notess · notse · nottes · ntoes · ontes
  • notrennotre · norte · noter · notrre · nottre · ntore · ontre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "notes" for "notre" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "notes" is a verb and "notre" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "notes" or "notre"?
"notes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,718 in our German list, against #22,838 for "notre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "notes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "notre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,382,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "notes" and "notre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "node vs notre". 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 #1,382,366 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list