unvsunaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: un is a adjective, una is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“un” is an adjective and “una” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12
“un” frequency rank
#16,505
“una” frequency rank
16517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature un una
Definition Marque l’unité, le fait qu’une personne ou une chose est seule, unique en son espèce. Un, une.

Letter map: un vs una

Shared letters muted; letters that set un and una apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
un
3 ch
una

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: un is anadjective and unaanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “un” sits inside “una”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

un is recorded at frequency rank #12, classified as anadj, pronounced \œ̃\. una is at rank #16,505, tagged as anarticle.

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 16517, this pair ranks #387,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of un vs una

Shared letters: nu. Private to "un": -. Private to "una": a.

"un" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "una" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "un" and "una" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "un" is an adjective and "una" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "un" or "una"?
"un" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12 in our French list, against #16,505 for "una". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "un" and "una". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "un" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "una" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "un" and "una" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ubu vs una". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list