néesvsnoyéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,206
“nées” frequency rank
#43,035
“noyées” frequency rank
55241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nées noyées
Definition Féminin pluriel de né. Féminin pluriel de noyé.

Where the eye mixes nées and noyées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. nées runs 4 letters (CVVC) against noyées's 6 (CVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
nées
6 ch
noyées

Visual trap between nées and noyées

A purely visual mix-up. nées (\ne\) and noyées (\nwa.je\) 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 55241, 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\. noyées is at rank #43,035, tagged as anadj, pronounced \nwa.je\.

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 55241, this pair ranks #128,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nées vs noyées

Shared letters: ensé. Private to "nées": -. Private to "noyées": oy.

"nées" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "noyées" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nées" and "noyées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ne\ versus \nwa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nées" or "noyées"?
"nées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,206 in our French list, against #43,035 for "noyées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "nées" and "noyées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noyées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #128,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nées" and "noyées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noués vs noyées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #128,741 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