Which to use
“nis” is a verb and “nos” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,821
- “nis” frequency rank
- #147
- “nos” frequency rank
- 49968
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nis | nos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe actif présent du verbe ní (« se déplacer »). | Première personne du pluriel. Qui sont à nous. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets. |
Where the eye mixes nis and nos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. nis and nos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between nis and nos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nis is \nis\ while nos is \no\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “nis” becomes o in “nos”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49968, 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\. nos is at rank #147, tagged as adet, 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 49968, this pair ranks #166,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of nis vs nos
Shared letters: ns. Private to "nis": i. Private to "nos": o.
"nis" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "nis" and "nos" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "nis" or "nos" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "nis" and "nos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "nis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nis" and "nos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nis vs nop". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #166,402 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.