mentevsmoiteTell them apart

Quick tell: mente is a verb, moite is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#32,068
“mente” frequency rank
#40,376
“moite” frequency rank
72444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mente moite
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de mentir. Qui a quelque humidité, qui est un peu mouillé. Se dit surtout de la peau rendue humide par la sueur.

Where the eye mixes mente and moite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mente (CVCCV) and moite (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
mente
5 ch
moite

Why the eye confuses mente with moite

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mente is \mɑ̃t\ while moite is \mwat\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mente is recorded at frequency rank #32,068, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃t\. moite is at rank #40,376, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mwat\.

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 72444, this pair ranks #43,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mente vs moite

Shared letters: emt. Private to "mente": n. Private to "moite": io.

"mente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "moite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mente ← emnte · menet · mennte · mentte · metne · mmente · mnete
  • moite ← miote · mmoite · moiet · moitte · motie · omite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mente" and "moite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mente" is a verb and "moite" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mente" vs "moite" - which ranks higher?
"mente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,068 in our French list, against #40,376 for "moite". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mente" and "moite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moisie vs moite". 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 #43,973 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