nomvsnosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nom is a noun, nos is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nom” is a noun and “nos” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#214
“nom” frequency rank
#147
“nos” frequency rank
361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nom nos
Definition Mot ou groupe de mots permettant de nommer un être ou une chose. Un nom peut être un nom commun, une locution nominale ou un nom propre. Première personne du pluriel. Qui sont à nous. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets.

Where the eye mixes nom and nos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
nom
3 ch
nos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nom is \nɔ̃\ while nos is \no\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “nom” becomes s in “nos”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nom is recorded at frequency rank #214, classified as anoun, pronounced \nɔ̃\. 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 361, this pair ranks #439,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nom vs nos

Shared letters: no. Private to "nom": m. Private to "nos": s.

"nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nom" and "nos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nom" is a noun and "nos" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nom" or "nos"?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 in our French list, against #214 for "nom". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "nom" and "nos". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nom" 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 #439,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nom" and "nos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nom vs nop". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list