nettoyévsnettoyerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,210
“nettoyé” frequency rank
#5,588
“nettoyer” frequency rank
25798
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nettoyé nettoyer
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de nettoyer. Rendre net et propre.

Where the eye mixes nettoyé and nettoyer

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

7 ch
nettoyé
8 ch
nettoyer

Look-alike desk: nettoyé vs nettoyer

A purely visual mix-up. nettoyé (\nɛ.twa.je\) and nettoyer (\ne.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 25798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nettoyé is recorded at frequency rank #20,210, classified as averb, pronounced \nɛ.twa.je\. nettoyer is at rank #5,588, tagged as averb, pronounced \ne.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 25798, this pair ranks #338,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nettoyé vs nettoyer

Shared letters: enoty. Private to "nettoyé": é. Private to "nettoyer": r.

"nettoyé" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "nettoyer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nettoyer ← enttoyer · netotyer · netoyer · nettoeyr · nettoyerr · nettoyre · nettoyyer · nettyoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nettoyé" for "nettoyer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\nɛ.twa.je\ versus \ne.twa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "nettoyé" or "nettoyer" show up more?
"nettoyer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,588 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nettoyé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nettoyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #338,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nettoyé" and "nettoyer" 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 #338,789 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