noievsnouésConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#19,611
“noie” frequency rank
#49,824
“noués” frequency rank
69435
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noie noués
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de noyer. Masculin pluriel de noué.

Where the eye mixes noie and noués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. noie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against noués's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
noie
5 ch
noués

Look-alike desk: noie vs noués

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: noie is \nwa\ while noués is \nwe\. 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 69435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noie is recorded at frequency rank #19,611, classified as averb, pronounced \nwa\. noués is at rank #49,824, tagged as anadj, pronounced \nwe\.

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 69435, this pair ranks #55,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of noie vs noués

Shared letters: no. Private to "noie": ei. Private to "noués": sué.

"noie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "noués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • noie ← nioe · nnoie · noei · onie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "noie" and "noués" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "noie" is a verb and "noués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "noie" or "noués" show up more?
"noie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,611 in our French list, against #49,824 for "noués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "noie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noie" and "noués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nodules vs noués". 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 #55,111 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