Which to use
“un” is an adjective and “ut” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12
- “un” frequency rank
- #20,597
- “ut” frequency rank
- 20609
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | un | ut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Marque l’unité, le fait qu’une personne ou une chose est seule, unique en son espèce. | La première note de l’échelle des sons. |
Where the eye mixes un and ut
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: un is \œ̃\ while ut is \yt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “un” becomes t in “ut”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
un is recorded at frequency rank #12, classified as anadj, pronounced \œ̃\. ut is at rank #20,597, tagged as anoun, pronounced \yt\.
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 20609, this pair ranks #367,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of un vs ut
Shared letters: u. Private to "un": n. Private to "ut": t.
"un" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ut" · 2 letters · shape VC