nettoievsnettoyezTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,684
“nettoie” frequency rank
#41,923
“nettoyez” frequency rank
58607
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nettoie nettoyez
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de nettoyer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de nettoyer.

Where the eye mixes nettoie and nettoyez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. nettoie runs 7 letters (CVCCVVV) against nettoyez's 8 (CVCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
nettoie
8 ch
nettoyez

Why the eye confuses nettoie with nettoyez

A purely visual mix-up. nettoie (\nɛ.twa\) and nettoyez (\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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58607, 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\. nettoyez is at rank #41,923, 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 58607, this pair ranks #108,060 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nettoie vs nettoyez

Shared letters: enot. Private to "nettoie": i. Private to "nettoyez": yz.

"nettoie" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "nettoyez" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nettoie ← enttoie · netoie · netotie · nettioe · nettoei · nnettoie · ntetoie
  • nettoyez ← enttoyez · netotyez · netoyez · nettoeyz · nettoyezz · nettoyyez · nettoyze · nettyoez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nettoie" for "nettoyez" ever safe?
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 "nettoyez" - which ranks higher?
"nettoie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,684 in our French list, against #41,923 for "nettoyez". 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 "nettoyez" 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 "nettoyez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,060 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nettoie" and "nettoyez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nettoyés vs nettoyez". 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 #108,060 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