nésvsnoyésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,785
“nés” frequency rank
#22,352
“noyés” frequency rank
27137
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nés noyés
Definition Masculin pluriel de né. Masculin pluriel de noyé.

Where the eye mixes nés and noyés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. nés runs 3 letters (CVC) against noyés's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
nés
5 ch
noyés

Visual trap between nés and noyés

A purely visual mix-up. nés (\ne\) and noyés (\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 27137, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nés is recorded at frequency rank #4,785, classified as anadj, pronounced \ne\. noyés is at rank #22,352, 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 27137, this pair ranks #330,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nés vs noyés

Shared letters: nsé. Private to "nés": -. Private to "noyés": oy.

"nés" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "noyés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nés" and "noyés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
Frequency check: "nés" vs "noyés" - which ranks higher?
"nés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,785 in our French list, against #22,352 for "noyés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noyés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #330,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nés" and "noyés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noués vs noyés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #330,867 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