neuervsniquerTell them apart

Quick tell: neuer is a adjective, niquer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“neuer” is an adjective and “niquer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,058
“neuer” frequency rank
#12,625
“niquer” frequency rank
41683
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature neuer niquer
Definition Comparatif de neu, prédicat de tous les genres au singulier et au pluriel. Obtenir au premier jet ce que l’on avait annoncé.

Where the eye mixes neuer and niquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
neuer
6 ch
niquer

Why the eye confuses neuer with niquer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neuer is \ˈnɔɪ̯ɐ\ while niquer is \ni.ke\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41683, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

neuer is recorded at frequency rank #29,058, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈnɔɪ̯ɐ\. niquer is at rank #12,625, tagged as averb, pronounced \ni.ke\.

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 41683, this pair ranks #231,248 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of neuer vs niquer

Shared letters: enru. Private to "neuer": -. Private to "niquer": iq.

"neuer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "niquer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • neuerenuer · neeur · neuerr · neure · nneuer · nueer
  • niquerinquer · niqeur · niqquer · niquerr · niqure · niuqer · nniquer · nqiuer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "neuer" for "niquer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "neuer" is an adjective and "niquer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "neuer" vs "niquer" - which ranks higher?
"niquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,625 in our French list, against #29,058 for "neuer". 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 "neuer" and "niquer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "neuer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "niquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #231,248 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "neuer" and "niquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "neuer vs noués". 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 #231,248 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