oitvsonConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#27,163
“oit” frequency rank
#29
“on” frequency rank
27192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oit on
Definition Toi. Pronom de la troisième personne du singulier. — Note d’usage : S’utilise pour désigner une ou des personnes indéfinies, en remplacement d’une forme passive.

Where the eye mixes oit and on

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
oit
2 ch
on

Look-alike desk: oit vs on

A purely visual mix-up. oit (\wat\) and on (\ɔ̃\) 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 27192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oit is recorded at frequency rank #27,163, classified as apron, pronounced \wat\. on is at rank #29, tagged as apron, pronounced \ɔ̃\.

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 27192, this pair ranks #330,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oit vs on

Shared letters: o. Private to "oit": it. Private to "on": n.

"oit" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "on" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "oit" for "on" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\wat\ versus \ɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "oit" vs "on" - which ranks higher?
"on" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29 in our French list, against #27,163 for "oit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "oit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "on" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #330,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oit" and "on" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs oit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #330,541 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