nouésvsnuesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“noués” and “nues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,824
“noués” frequency rank
#9,205
“nues” frequency rank
59029
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noués nues
Definition Masculin pluriel de noué. Féminin pluriel de nu.

Where the eye mixes noués and nues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. noués runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against nues's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
noués
4 ch
nues

Visual trap between noués and nues

A purely visual mix-up. noués (\nwe\) and nues (\ny\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noués is recorded at frequency rank #49,824, classified as anadj, pronounced \nwe\. nues is at rank #9,205, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ny\.

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 59029, this pair ranks #105,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of noués vs nues

Shared letters: nsu. Private to "noués": oé. Private to "nues": e.

"noués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "nues" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nues ← neus · nnues · nuess · nuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "noués" and "nues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\nwe\ versus \ny\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "noués" or "nues" show up more?
"nues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,205 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "noués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noués" and "nues" 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 #105,492 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