neutresvsnôtresTell them apart

Quick tell: neutres is a adjective, nôtres is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“neutres” is an adjective and “nôtres” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,100
“neutres” frequency rank
#9,709
“nôtres” frequency rank
23809
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature neutres nôtres
Definition Pluriel de neutre. Folies, bons tours, bons divertissements.

Where the eye mixes neutres and nôtres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. neutres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against nôtres's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
neutres
6 ch
nôtres

Why the eye confuses neutres with nôtres

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neutres is \nøtʁ\ while nôtres is \notʁ\. 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 23809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

neutres is recorded at frequency rank #14,100, classified as anadj, pronounced \nøtʁ\. nôtres is at rank #9,709, tagged as anoun, pronounced \notʁ\.

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 23809, this pair ranks #350,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of neutres vs nôtres

Shared letters: enrst. Private to "neutres": u. Private to "nôtres": ô.

"neutres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "nôtres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • neutres ← enutres · netures · neurtes · neuters · neutress · neutrres · neutrse · neuttres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "neutres" and "nôtres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "neutres" is an adjective and "nôtres" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "neutres" vs "nôtres" - which ranks higher?
"nôtres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,709 in our French list, against #14,100 for "neutres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "neutres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nôtres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "neutres" and "nôtres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nôtres 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 #350,329 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