nonvsnopWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: non is a adverb, nop is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“non” is an adverb and “nop” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#82
“non” frequency rank
#49,823
“nop” frequency rank
49905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature non nop
Definition Réponse négative. Il marque le désaccord sur une question affirmative et l’accord sur une question négative. Relief, nervure.

Letter map: non vs nop

Shared letters muted; letters that set non and nop apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. non and nop follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
non
3 ch
nop

Grammar separator: non vs nop

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: non is anadverb and nopanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - n in “non” becomes p in “nop”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

non is recorded at frequency rank #82, classified as anadv, pronounced \nɔ̃\. nop is at rank #49,823, tagged as anoun.

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 49905, this pair ranks #166,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of non vs nop

Shared letters: no. Private to "non": -. Private to "nop": p.

"non" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nop" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "non" for "nop" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "non" is an adverb and "nop" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "non" or "nop" show up more?
"non" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #82 in our French list, against #49,823 for "nop". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "non" and "nop".

  • Full dictionary entry for "non" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #166,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "non" and "nop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nis vs nop". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #166,935 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