Which to use
“rien” is a pronoun and “riens” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #100
- “rien” frequency rank
- #40,469
- “riens” frequency rank
- 40569
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rien | riens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (Avec une valeur positive) Quelque chose, quoi que ce soit. | Pluriel de rien. |
Same sound, different letters: rien vs riens
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - rien and riens
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: rien and riens carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁjɛ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is apronoun, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “rien” sits inside “riens”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rien is recorded at frequency rank #100, classified as apron, pronounced \ʁjɛ̃\. riens is at rank #40,469, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁjɛ̃\.
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 40569, this pair ranks #239,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rien vs riens
Shared letters: einr. Private to "rien": -. Private to "riens": s.
"rien" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "riens" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rien" for "riens" ever safe?
Which is more common, "rien" or "riens"?
What to do next
"rien" and "riens" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "rien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "riens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #239,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rien" and "riens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Reis vs riens". 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 #239,531 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.