nerve

\nɛʁv\

/\nɛʁv\/ verb

The verdict

“nerve” is uncommon French (frequency #75,941 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#75,941
frequency rank, French
1,563
“N” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de nerver.

Corpus desk

Index FR-nerve · nerve · French

nerve · rank #75,941 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #75,941
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,563
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ndoye

Nearest frequency peer: Ndoye (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « nerve »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « nerve » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for nerve
PropertyValue
Headwordnerve
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\nɛʁv\
Letters5
Frequency rank#75,941
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « nerve » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).nervetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « Ndoye » (#75,940), « Nessa » (#75,942), « nesta » (#75,943). Parmi 1,563 lemmes en « N », « nerve » est au #75,941. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

nerve is uncommon French at frequency #75,941 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \nɛʁv\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for nerve, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is nerve, spelled N-E-R-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de nerver.
  2. 2
    Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de nerver.
  3. 3
    Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de nerver.
  4. 4
    Troisième personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de nerver.
  5. 5
    Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif de nerver.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nerve"?
"nerve" is spelled N-E-R-V-E. The IPA pronunciation is \nɛʁv\.
What does "nerve" mean?
As a verb, "nerve" means: Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de nerver.
How do you pronounce "nerve"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nerve" is \nɛʁv\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nerve" come from?
"nerve" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "nerve", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list