Which to use
“neu” is an adjective and “noue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,394
- “neu” frequency rank
- #26,457
- “noue” frequency rank
- 66851
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | neu | noue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nouveau. | Endroit où se rencontrent les surfaces inclinées de deux combles. |
Where the eye mixes neu and noue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. neu runs 3 letters (CVV) against noue's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between neu and noue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neu is \nɔɪ̯\ while noue is \nu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
neu is recorded at frequency rank #40,394, classified as anadj, pronounced \nɔɪ̯\. noue is at rank #26,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nu\.
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 66851, this pair ranks #65,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of neu vs noue
Shared letters: enu. Private to "neu": -. Private to "noue": o.
"neu" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "noue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- noue ← nnoue · noeu · nuoe · onue
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "neu" for "noue" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "neu" or "noue" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "neu" and "noue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "neu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "noue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "neu" and "noue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "neu vs nop". 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 #65,992 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.