Which to use
“nasal” is an adjective and “nasale” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,919
- “nasal” frequency rank
- #33,799
- “nasale” frequency rank
- 75718
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nasal | nasale |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif au nez. | Consonne nasale, c’est-à-dire dont le son passe par les fosses nasales. |
Same sound, different letters: nasal vs nasale
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. nasal runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against nasale's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - nasal / nasale
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: nasal and nasale carry the same recorded pronunciation, \na.zal\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “nasal” sits inside “nasale”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nasal is recorded at frequency rank #41,919, classified as anadj, pronounced \na.zal\. nasale is at rank #33,799, tagged as anoun, pronounced \na.zal\.
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 75718, this pair ranks #33,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of nasal vs nasale
Shared letters: alns. Private to "nasal": -. Private to "nasale": e.
"nasal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "nasale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "nasal" for "nasale" ever safe?
Frequency check: "nasal" vs "nasale" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "nasal" / "nasale". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "nasal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nasale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nasal" and "nasale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "napa vs nasal". 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 #33,203 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.