nisvsnuesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nis is a verb, nues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nis” is a verb and “nues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,821
“nis” frequency rank
#9,205
“nues” frequency rank
59026
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nis nues
Definition Participe actif présent du verbe ní (« se déplacer »). Féminin pluriel de nu.

Where the eye mixes nis and nues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. nis runs 3 letters (CVC) against nues's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
nis
4 ch
nues

Look-alike desk: nis vs nues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nis is \nis\ while nues is \ny\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59026, 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\. nues is at rank #9,205, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ny\.

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 59026, this pair ranks #105,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nis vs nues

Shared letters: ns. Private to "nis": i. Private to "nues": eu.

"nis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nues" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nues ← neus · nnues · nuess · nuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nis" for "nues" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nis" is a verb and "nues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "nis" vs "nues" - which ranks higher?
"nues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,205 in our French list, against #49,821 for "nis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "nis" and "nues" 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 "nues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,516 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nis" and "nues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nis vs nop". 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 #105,516 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list