Which to use
“near” and “neu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,939
- “near” frequency rank
- #40,394
- “neu” frequency rank
- 79333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | near | neu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Près, proche. | Nouveau. |
Where the eye mixes near and neu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: near vs neu
A purely visual mix-up. near (\ˈnɪɹ\) and neu (\nɔɪ̯\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
near is recorded at frequency rank #38,939, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈnɪɹ\. neu is at rank #40,394, tagged as anadj, pronounced \nɔɪ̯\.
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 79333, this pair ranks #23,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of near vs neu
Shared letters: en. Private to "near": ar. Private to "neu": u.
"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "neu" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- near ← enar · naer · nearr · nera · nnear
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "near" and "neu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "near" or "neu" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "near" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "neu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #23,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "near" and "neu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "neu vs nop". 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 #23,567 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.