metsvsmotosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,444
“mets” frequency rank
#13,010
“motos” frequency rank
14454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mets motos
Definition Chacun des aliments apprêtés qu’on sert pour les repas. Pluriel de moto.

Where the eye mixes mets and motos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mets runs 4 letters (CVCC) against motos's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mets
5 ch
motos

Why the eye confuses mets with motos

A purely visual mix-up. mets (\mɛ\) and motos (\mo.to\) 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 14454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mets is recorded at frequency rank #1,444, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛ\. motos is at rank #13,010, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mo.to\.

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 14454, this pair ranks #396,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mets vs motos

Shared letters: mst. Private to "mets": e. Private to "motos": o.

"mets" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "motos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • metsemts · mest · metss · metts · mmets · mtes
  • motosmmotos · moots · motoss · motso · mottos · mtoos · omtos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mets" and "motos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɛ\ versus \mo.to\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mets" vs "motos" - which ranks higher?
"mets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,444 in our French list, against #13,010 for "motos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mets" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mets" and "motos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mito vs motos". 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 #396,565 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