nis vs nos, What's the Difference?

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nis and nos apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

nis

3 ch

nos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

nis#49,821

nos#147

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nis" and "nos" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "nis" or "nos"?

"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 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.

Remembering nis vs nos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “nis”; for a determiner, it's “nos”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nis” entry
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