NotevsnoterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Note is a noun, noter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Note” is a noun and “noter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#925
“Note” frequency rank
#2,842
“noter” frequency rank
3767
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Note noter
Definition Note (écrite). Marquer d’un trait dans un livre, dans un écrit.

Where the eye mixes Note and noter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Note
5 ch
noter

Why the eye confuses Note with noter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Note is \ˈnoː.tə\ while noter is \nɔ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Note” sits inside “noter”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3767, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Note is recorded at frequency rank #925, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈnoː.tə\. noter is at rank #2,842, tagged as averb, pronounced \nɔ.te\.

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 3767, this pair ranks #433,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Note vs noter

Shared letters: enot. Private to "Note": -. Private to "noter": r.

"Note" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "noter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Notennote · noet · notte · ntoe · onte
  • noternnoter · noetr · noterr · notter · ntoer · onter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Note" for "noter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Note" is a noun and "noter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Note" or "noter" show up more?
"Note" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #925 in our French list, against #2,842 for "noter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Note" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #433,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Note" and "noter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noter 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 #433,238 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