nonvsnyWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#82
“non” frequency rank
#10,201
“ny” frequency rank
10283
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature non ny
Definition Réponse négative. Il marque le désaccord sur une question affirmative et l’accord sur une question négative. Nous.

Letter map: non vs ny

Shared letters muted; letters that set non and ny apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
non
2 ch
ny

Part-of-speech tell for non / ny

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: non is anadverb and nyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

non is recorded at frequency rank #82, classified as anadv, pronounced \nɔ̃\. ny is at rank #10,201, tagged as apron, pronounced \ˈ\.

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 10283, this pair ranks #413,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of non vs ny

Shared letters: n. Private to "non": o. Private to "ny": y.

"non" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ny" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "non" and "ny" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "non" is an adverb and "ny" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "non" vs "ny" - which ranks higher?
"non" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #82 in our French list, against #10,201 for "ny". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "non" and "ny". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "non" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ny" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "non" and "ny" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nop vs ny". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #413,574 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