navirevsnavréeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: navire is a noun, navrée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“navire” is a noun and “navrée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,092
“navire” frequency rank
#45,752
“navrée” frequency rank
48844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature navire navrée
Definition Bateau qui sert à naviguer sur mer. Féminin singulier de navré.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set navire and navrée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
navire
6 ch
navrée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: navire is \na.viʁ\ while navrée is \na.vʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

navire is recorded at frequency rank #3,092, classified as anoun, pronounced \na.viʁ\. navrée is at rank #45,752, tagged as anadj, pronounced \na.vʁe\.

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 48844, this pair ranks #175,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of navire vs navrée

Shared letters: aenrv. Private to "navire": i. Private to "navrée": é.

"navire" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "navrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • navireanvire · naivre · navier · navirre · navrie · navvire · nnavire · nvaire

Frequency comparison

navire#3,092
navrée#45,752

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "navire" and "navrée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "navire" is a noun and "navrée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "navire" or "navrée"?
"navire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,092 in our French list, against #45,752 for "navrée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering navire vs navrée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “navire”; for an adjective, it's “navrée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “navire” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list