Which to use
“nouvelle” and “nouvelles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #192
- “nouvelle” frequency rank
- #435
- “nouvelles” frequency rank
- 627
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nouvelle | nouvelles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genre littéraire basé sur un récit de fiction habituellement court, en prose, centré sur un seul événement, laissant peu de répit au lecteur et dont la chute est souvent surprenante. | Renseignement sur l’état d’une personne ou d’une chose dont on n’était pas informé depuis quelque temps. |
Same sound, different letters: nouvelle vs nouvelles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. nouvelle runs 8 letters (CVVCVCCV) against nouvelles's 9 (CVVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - nouvelle and nouvelles
This is the hard kind. nouvelle and nouvelles are pronounced identically (\nu.vɛl\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “nouvelle” sits inside “nouvelles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nouvelle is recorded at frequency rank #192, classified as anoun, pronounced \nu.vɛl\. nouvelles is at rank #435, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nu.vɛl\.
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 627, this pair ranks #439,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of nouvelle vs nouvelles
Shared letters: elnouv. Private to "nouvelle": -. Private to "nouvelles": s.
"nouvelle" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV · "nouvelles" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "nouvelle" and "nouvelles" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "nouvelle" or "nouvelles"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "nouvelle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nouvelles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nouvelle" and "nouvelles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nivelle vs nouvelle". 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 #439,367 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.