Which to use
“no” is a noun and “nos” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,447
- “no” frequency rank
- #147
- “nos” frequency rank
- 1594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | no | nos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Non par un anglophone ou par un pays anglophone. | Première personne du pluriel. Qui sont à nous. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets. |
Same sound, different letters: no vs nos
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.
Homophone desk: no vs nos
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: no and nos carry the same recorded pronunciation, \no\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other adeterminer, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “no” sits inside “nos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
no is recorded at frequency rank #1,447, classified as anoun, pronounced \no\. 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 1594, this pair ranks #437,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of no vs nos
Shared letters: no. Private to "no": -. Private to "nos": s.
"no" · 2 letters · shape CV · "nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "no" and "nos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "no" or "nos"?
What to do next
"no" and "nos" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "no" 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 #437,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "no" and "nos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "no vs nop". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #437,762 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.