nis vs no, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“nis” is a verb and “no” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,821
“nis” frequency rank: #1,447
“no” frequency rank: 51268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nis	no
Definition	Participe actif présent du verbe ní (« se déplacer »).	Non par un anglophone ou par un pays anglophone.

Where the eye mixes nis and no

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

3 ch

nis

2 ch

Look-alike desk: nis vs no

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nis is \nis\ while no is \no\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nis is recorded at frequency rank #49,821, classified as averb, pronounced \nis\. no is at rank #1,447, tagged as anoun, pronounced \no\.

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 51268, this pair ranks #156,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nis vs no

Shared letters: n. Private to "nis": is. Private to "no": o.

"nis" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "no" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nis" and "no" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nis" is a verb and "no" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary French text, does "nis" or "no" show up more?

"no" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,447 in our French list, against #49,821 for "nis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "nis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "no" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #156,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nis" and "no" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nis vs nop". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #156,318 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.