ni vs now, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ni” is a conjunction and “now” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#274
“ni” frequency rank: #8,278
“now” frequency rank: 8552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ni	now
Definition	Conjonction de coordination négative qui correspond à et affirmatif.	Maintenant.

Where the eye mixes ni and now

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

now

Why the eye confuses ni with now

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ni is \ni\ while now is \ˈnaʊ\. 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 (conjunction vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ni is recorded at frequency rank #274, classified as aconj, pronounced \ni\. now is at rank #8,278, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ˈnaʊ\.

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 8552, this pair ranks #419,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ni vs now

Shared letters: n. Private to "ni": i. Private to "now": ow.

"ni" · 2 letters · shape CV · "now" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ni" for "now" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ni" is a conjunction and "now" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary French text, does "ni" or "now" show up more?

"ni" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #274 in our French list, against #8,278 for "now". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "ni" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "now" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #419,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ni" and "now" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nop vs now". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #419,640 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.