International audienceThis paper deals with quadratic equivalence, normal forms of observability, characteristic matrices and normal quadratic numbers for nonlinear Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) systems. We investigated both cases; nonlinear systems linearly observable and nonlinear systems with one linear unobservable mode. Particularly, the effect of the normal quadratic numbers on the observer design is pointed out. Finally, a faster observability analysis is proposed using characteristic matrices and normal quadratic numbers. Throughout the paper, academic examples as well as bio-reactor example highlight our purpose