nevsNPDWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ne is a particle, NPD is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ne” is a particle and “NPD” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30
“ne” frequency rank
#11,090
“NPD” frequency rank
11120
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ne NPD
Definition Négation. Première partie d’un morphème en général à double forme encadrant le verbe et certains pronoms. Parfois appelé discordantiel, ne est complété d’un forclusif : pas, plus, jamais, point, personne, rien, aucun, nul, etc., ou de formules archaïsantes : goutte, mie, mais (n’en pouvoir mais). Parti politique fédéral de centre-gauche.

Letter map: ne vs NPD

Shared letters muted; letters that set ne and NPD apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ne
3 ch
NPD

Grammar separator: ne vs NPD

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ne is aparticle and NPDanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ne is recorded at frequency rank #30, classified as aparticle, pronounced \nə\. NPD is at rank #11,090, tagged as anoun.

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 11120, this pair ranks #410,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ne vs NPD

Shared letters: n. Private to "ne": e. Private to "NPD": dp.

"ne" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "NPD" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ne" for "NPD" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ne" is a particle and "NPD" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ne" or "NPD"?
"ne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30 in our French list, against #11,090 for "NPD". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "ne" and "NPD". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "NPD" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ne" and "NPD" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nop vs NPD". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #410,406 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