naîtvsnoiTell them apart

Quick tell: naît is a verb, noi is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“naît” is a verb and “noi” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,894
“naît” frequency rank
#43,572
“noi” frequency rank
52466
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature naît noi
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de naître. Garçon, jeune homme.

Where the eye mixes naît and noi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. naît runs 4 letters (CVVC) against noi's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
naît
3 ch
noi

Visual trap between naît and noi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: naît is \nɛ\ while noi is \ˈnɔj\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

naît is recorded at frequency rank #8,894, classified as averb, pronounced \nɛ\. noi is at rank #43,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈnɔj\.

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 52466, this pair ranks #147,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of naît vs noi

Shared letters: n. Private to "naît": atî. Private to "noi": io.

"naît" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "noi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "naît" and "noi" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "naît" is a verb and "noi" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "naît" or "noi" show up more?
"naît" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,894 in our French list, against #43,572 for "noi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "naît" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "naît" and "noi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noi vs nop". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #147,532 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