néesvsnotéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“nées” and “notées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,206
“nées” frequency rank
#30,719
“notées” frequency rank
42925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nées notées
Definition Féminin pluriel de né. Féminin pluriel de noté.

Where the eye mixes nées and notées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
nées
6 ch
notées

Visual trap between nées and notées

A purely visual mix-up. nées (\ne\) and notées (\nɔ.te\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nées is recorded at frequency rank #12,206, classified as anadj, pronounced \ne\. notées is at rank #30,719, tagged as anadj, pronounced \nɔ.te\.

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 42925, this pair ranks #221,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nées vs notées

Shared letters: ensé. Private to "nées": -. Private to "notées": ot.

"nées" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "notées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nées" and "notées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ne\ versus \nɔ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nées" or "notées"?
"nées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,206 in our French list, against #30,719 for "notées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "notées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nées" and "notées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "notées vs noués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #221,883 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