mentionvsmentionsConfusable pair

Which to use

“mention” and “mentions” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,724
“mention” frequency rank
#7,864
“mentions” frequency rank
10588
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mention mentions
Definition Action de mentionner, résultat de cette action. Pluriel de mention.

Same sound, different letters: mention vs mentions

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
mention
8 ch
mentions

Homophone desk: mention vs mentions

This is the hard kind. mention and mentions are pronounced identically (\mɑ̃.sjɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mention” sits inside “mentions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mention is recorded at frequency rank #2,724, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃.sjɔ̃\. mentions is at rank #7,864, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃.sjɔ̃\.

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 10588, this pair ranks #412,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mention vs mentions

Shared letters: eimnot. Private to "mention": -. Private to "mentions": s.

"mention" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "mentions" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mentionemntion · meniton · menntion · mentino · mentionn · mentoin · menttion · metnion
  • mentionsemntions · menitons · menntions · mentinos · mentionns · mentionss · mentiosn · mentoins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mention" for "mentions" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mɑ̃.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "mention" or "mentions" show up more?
"mention" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,724 in our French list, against #7,864 for "mentions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "mention" / "mentions". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mention" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mentions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mention" and "mentions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mentions vs mentors". 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 #412,394 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