unavsunsTell them apart

Quick tell: una is a article, uns is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#16,505
“una” frequency rank
#2,255
“uns” frequency rank
18760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature una uns
Definition Un, une. Pluriel de un ; chacun. Ensemble premier, initial, en opposition à autres.

Letter map: una vs uns

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

3 ch
una
3 ch
uns

Grammar separator: una vs uns

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: una is anarticle and unsanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “una” becomes s in “uns”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

una is recorded at frequency rank #16,505, classified as anarticle. uns is at rank #2,255, tagged as anoun, pronounced \œ̃\.

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 18760, this pair ranks #376,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of una vs uns

Shared letters: nu. Private to "una": a. Private to "uns": s.

"una" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "uns" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "una" for "uns" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "una" is an article and "uns" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "una" or "uns" show up more?
"uns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,255 in our French list, against #16,505 for "una". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "una" and "uns".

  • Full dictionary entry for "una" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "uns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "una" and "uns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ubu vs una". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #376,705 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