nagesvsnotesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“nages” and “notes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,613
“nages” frequency rank
#1,747
“notes” frequency rank
37360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nages notes
Definition Pluriel de nage. Pluriel de note.

Where the eye mixes nages and notes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
nages
5 ch
notes

Why the eye confuses nages with notes

A purely visual mix-up. nages (\naʒ\) and notes (\nɔt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nages is recorded at frequency rank #35,613, classified as anoun, pronounced \naʒ\. notes is at rank #1,747, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nɔt\.

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 37360, this pair ranks #263,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nages vs notes

Shared letters: ens. Private to "nages": ag. Private to "notes": ot.

"nages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "notes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nagesnaegs · nagess · nagges · nagse · ngaes · nnages
  • notesnnotes · noets · notess · notse · nottes · ntoes · ontes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nages" and "notes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\naʒ\ versus \nɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "nages" vs "notes" - which ranks higher?
"notes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,747 in our French list, against #35,613 for "nages". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "notes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nages" and "notes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nages vs noués". 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 #263,026 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list