nosvsnoyéWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#147
“nos” frequency rank
#15,949
“noyé” frequency rank
16096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nos noyé
Definition Première personne du pluriel. Qui sont à nous. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets. Personne qui se noie ou qui a péri par noyade.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nos and noyé apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
nos
4 ch
noyé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nos is \no\ while noyé is \nwa.je\. 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 (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nos is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as adet, pronounced \no\. noyé is at rank #15,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nwa.je\.

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 16096, this pair ranks #389,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nos vs noyé

Shared letters: no. Private to "nos": s. Private to "noyé": .

"nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "noyé" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Frequency comparison

nos#147
noyé#15,949

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nos" and "noyé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nos" is a determiner and "noyé" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nos" or "noyé"?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 in our French list, against #15,949 for "noyé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering nos vs noyé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a determiner, it's “nos”; for a noun, it's “noyé”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nos” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list