matsvsmitWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mats is a adjective, mit is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mats” is an adjective and “mit” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,855
“mats” frequency rank
#3,474
“mit” frequency rank
33329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mats mit
Definition Masculin pluriel de mat. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de mettre.

Where the eye mixes mats and mit

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

4 ch
mats
3 ch
mit

Look-alike desk: mats vs mit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mats is \mat\ while mit is \mi\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mats is recorded at frequency rank #29,855, classified as anadj, pronounced \mat\. mit is at rank #3,474, tagged as averb, pronounced \mi\.

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 33329, this pair ranks #291,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mats vs mit

Shared letters: mt. Private to "mats": as. Private to "mit": i.

"mats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matsamts · mast · matss · matts · mmats · mtas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mats" and "mit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mats" is an adjective and "mit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mats" or "mit"?
"mit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,474 in our French list, against #29,855 for "mats". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "mats" and "mit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #291,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mats" and "mit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mats vs mito". 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

Confusion rank #291,363 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