unevsunisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: une is a noun, unis is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“une” is a noun and “unis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16
“une” frequency rank
#442
“unis” frequency rank
458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature une unis
Definition Chose portant le numéro 1. Masculin pluriel de uni.

Where the eye mixes une and unis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
une
4 ch
unis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: une is \yn\ while unis is \y.ni\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

une is recorded at frequency rank #16, classified as anoun, pronounced \yn\. unis is at rank #442, tagged as anadj, pronounced \y.ni\.

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 458, this pair ranks #439,609 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of une vs unis

Shared letters: nu. Private to "une": e. Private to "unis": is.

"une" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "unis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unisnuis · uins · uniss · unnis · unsi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "une" and "unis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "une" is a noun and "unis" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "une" or "unis"?
"une" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16 in our French list, against #442 for "unis". 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 "une" and "unis". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "une" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "unis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,609 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "une" and "unis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ubu vs une". 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

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