nonnesvsnouésTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#39,420
“nonnes” frequency rank
#49,824
“noués” frequency rank
89244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nonnes noués
Definition Pluriel de nonne. Masculin pluriel de noué.

Where the eye mixes nonnes and noués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. nonnes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against noués's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
nonnes
5 ch
noués

Visual trap between nonnes and noués

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nonnes is \nɔn\ 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nonnes is recorded at frequency rank #39,420, classified as anoun, pronounced \nɔn\. 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 89244, this pair ranks #6,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nonnes vs noués

Shared letters: nos. Private to "nonnes": e. Private to "noués": ué.

"nonnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "noués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nonnes ← nnones · nnonnes · nonens · nones · nonness · nonnse · onnnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nonnes" and "noués" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nonnes" is a noun and "noués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nonnes" or "noués"?
"nonnes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,420 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

Eye-level mix-up between "nonnes" and "noués" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nonnes" 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 #6,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nonnes" 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 #6,005 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