Which to use
“year” is a noun and “yes” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #117
- “year” frequency rank
- #301
- “yes” frequency rank
- 418
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | year | yes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons. | Used to show agreement or acceptance. |
Where the eye mixes year and yes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: year is /jɪə/ while yes is /jɛs/. 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 (noun vs particle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 418, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
year is recorded at frequency rank #117, classified as anoun, pronounced /jɪə/. yes is at rank #301, tagged as aparticle, pronounced /jɛs/.
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 418, this pair ranks #529,455 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of year vs yes
Shared letters: ey. Private to "year": ar. Private to "yes": s.
"year" · 4 letters · shape VVVC · "yes" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- year ← eyar · yaer · yearr · yera · yyear