nous
\nu\
The verdict
“nous” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #50 in French word frequency and used as a pronoun.
- #50
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pronom de la première personne du pluriel, incluant le locuteur ainsi que d’autres personnes au nom de qui il parle, utilisable en sujet, en complément d’objet, ou en tant que pronom tonique pour m...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nous |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | \nu\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #50 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nous” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for nous is 4 letters long, classified as a pronoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nu\. Corpus data places it at rank #50 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for nous, with forms such as "nnous", "nosu", and "nouss". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "nu", "NS", "nul", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is nous, spelled N-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Pronom de la première personne du pluriel, incluant le locuteur ainsi que d’autres personnes au nom de qui il parle, utilisable en sujet, en complément d’objet, ou en tant que pronom tonique pour marquer l’insistance sur la personne.
- 2Se dit souvent pour désigner une collectivité dont fait partie la personne qui parle, qu’il s’agisse de l’humanité, d’un pays, d’une province, d’une famille, ou encore de gens ayant en commun des idées, des croyances, une formation, des habitudes, etc.
- 3S’emploie aussi quelquefois, dans le registre familier, au lieu du pronom personnel il ou elle.
- 4À l’époque des rois, remplaçait le singulier je ou moi dans les lois, dans les ordonnances, etc.
- 5Pronom personnel sujet de la deuxième personne du singulier, tu.
- 6Dans les romans, essais, travaux universitaires, remplace les pronoms je, me, moi pour désigner l'auteur du texte (voir nous de modestie).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nnous,nosu,nouss,nuos,onus
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nous - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "nous"?
What does "nous" mean?
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Using “nous”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is N-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \nu\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “nu” - see the side-by-side comparison. nous vs nu
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.