Which to use
“niet” and “nine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,483
- “niet” frequency rank
- #28,265
- “nine” frequency rank
- 70748
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | niet | nine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Réponse négative, refus catégorique. | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 9. |
Where the eye mixes niet and nine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. niet (CVVC) and nine (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: niet vs nine
A purely visual mix-up. niet (\njɛt\) and nine (\ˈnai̯na\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
niet is recorded at frequency rank #42,483, classified as anoun, pronounced \njɛt\. nine is at rank #28,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈnai̯na\.
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 70748, this pair ranks #50,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of niet vs nine
Shared letters: ein. Private to "niet": t. Private to "nine": -.
"niet" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "nine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "niet" and "nine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "niet" or "nine"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "niet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "niet" and "nine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "niet vs nis". 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 #50,179 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.