nemovsnetsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nemo is a pronoun, nets is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nemo” is a pronoun and “nets” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,957
“nemo” frequency rank
#12,623
“nets” frequency rank
36580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nemo nets
Definition Personne. Masculin pluriel de net.

Where the eye mixes nemo and nets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
nemo
4 ch
nets

Visual trap between nemo and nets

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nemo is \ˈneː.moː\ while nets is \nɛt\. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nemo is recorded at frequency rank #23,957, classified as apron, pronounced \ˈneː.moː\. nets is at rank #12,623, tagged as anadj, pronounced \nɛt\.

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 36580, this pair ranks #268,608 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nemo vs nets

Shared letters: en. Private to "nemo": mo. Private to "nets": st.

"nemo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nets" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nemoenmo · nemmo · neom · nmeo · nnemo
  • netsents · netss · netts · nnets · ntes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nemo" and "nets" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nemo" is a pronoun and "nets" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nemo" or "nets"?
"nets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,623 in our French list, against #23,957 for "nemo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nemo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,608 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nemo" and "nets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nemo vs nome". 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 #268,608 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