Which to use
“mercis” and “mères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,043
- “mercis” frequency rank
- #4,253
- “mères” frequency rank
- 52296
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mercis | mères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de merci. | Pluriel de mère. |
Where the eye mixes mercis and mères
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mercis runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against mères's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mercis and mères
A purely visual mix-up. mercis (\mɛʁ.si\) and mères (\mɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mercis is recorded at frequency rank #48,043, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ.si\. mères is at rank #4,253, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\.
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 52296, this pair ranks #148,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mercis vs mères
Shared letters: emrs. Private to "mercis": ci. Private to "mères": è.
"mercis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mercis ← emrcis · mecris · merccis · merciss · mercsi · merics · merrcis · mmercis
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mercis" and "mères" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "mercis" or "mères" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mercis" and "mères" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mercis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #148,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mercis" and "mères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marcia vs mercis". 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 #148,694 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.