nemovsneueWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#23,957
“nemo” frequency rank
#44,599
“neue” frequency rank
68556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nemo neue
Definition Personne. Accusatif pluriel (à tous les genres) de la déclinaison forte de neu.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nemo and neue apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
nemo
4 ch
neue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nemo is \ˈneː.moː\ while neue is \ˈnɔɪ̯ə\. 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 68556, 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\. neue is at rank #44,599, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈnɔɪ̯ə\.

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 68556, this pair ranks #58,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nemo vs neue

Shared letters: en. Private to "nemo": mo. Private to "neue": u.

"nemo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "neue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nemoenmo · nemmo · neom · nmeo · nnemo
  • neueenue · neeu · nneue

Frequency comparison

nemo#23,957
neue#44,599

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nemo" and "neue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nemo" is a pronoun and "neue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nemo" or "neue"?
"nemo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,957 in our French list, against #44,599 for "neue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering nemo vs neue

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “nemo”; for an adjective, it's “neue”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nemo” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list