un vs usé, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#12
“un” frequency rank: #13,292
“usé” frequency rank: 13304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	un	usé
Definition	Marque l’unité, le fait qu’une personne ou une chose est seule, unique en son espèce.	Détérioré, diminué par le frottement, ruiné.

Where the eye mixes un and usé

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

2 ch

3 ch

usé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. un (\œ̃\) and usé (\y.ze\) 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 13304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

un is recorded at frequency rank #12, classified as anadj, pronounced \œ̃\. usé is at rank #13,292, tagged as anadj, pronounced \y.ze\.

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 13304, this pair ranks #401,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of un vs usé

Shared letters: u. Private to "un": n. Private to "usé": sé.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "un" and "usé" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\œ̃\ versus \y.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "un" or "usé"?

"un" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12 in our French list, against #13,292 for "usé". 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 "usé". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "un" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "usé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #401,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"un" and "usé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ubu vs usé". Nearby pair

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