Which to use
“merdes” and “mères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,359
- “merdes” frequency rank
- #4,253
- “mères” frequency rank
- 14612
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merdes | mères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de merde. | Pluriel de mère. |
Where the eye mixes merdes and mères
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. merdes 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.
Why the eye confuses merdes with mères
A purely visual mix-up. merdes (\mɛʁd\) 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 14612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merdes is recorded at frequency rank #10,359, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\. 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 14612, this pair ranks #395,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of merdes vs mères
Shared letters: emrs. Private to "merdes": d. Private to "mères": è.
"merdes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mères" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- merdes ← emrdes · medres · merddes · merdess · merdse · mereds · merrdes · mmerdes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "merdes" for "mères" ever safe?
Frequency check: "merdes" vs "mères" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "merdes" 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 #395,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merdes" and "mères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mercis vs merdes". 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 #395,922 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.