nettoievsnettoyéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,684
“nettoie” frequency rank
#20,210
“nettoyé” frequency rank
36894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nettoie nettoyé
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de nettoyer. Participe passé masculin singulier de nettoyer.

Where the eye mixes nettoie and nettoyé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. nettoie and nettoyé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
nettoie
7 ch
nettoyé

Look-alike desk: nettoie vs nettoyé

A purely visual mix-up. nettoie (\nɛ.twa\) and nettoyé (\nɛ.twa.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nettoie is recorded at frequency rank #16,684, classified as averb, pronounced \nɛ.twa\. nettoyé is at rank #20,210, tagged as averb, pronounced \nɛ.twa.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 36894, this pair ranks #266,370 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nettoie vs nettoyé

Shared letters: enot. Private to "nettoie": i. Private to "nettoyé": yé.

"nettoie" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "nettoyé" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nettoie ← enttoie · netoie · netotie · nettioe · nettoei · nnettoie · ntetoie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nettoie" and "nettoyé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\nɛ.twa\ versus \nɛ.twa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "nettoie" vs "nettoyé" - which ranks higher?
"nettoie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,684 in our French list, against #20,210 for "nettoyé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nettoie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nettoyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,370 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nettoie" and "nettoyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nettoyé vs nettoyés". 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 #266,370 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