mettaitvsmontaitConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,631
“mettait” frequency rank
#16,679
“montait” frequency rank
23310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mettait montait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de mettre. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de monter.

Where the eye mixes mettait and montait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mettait and montait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
mettait
7 ch
montait

Look-alike desk: mettait vs montait

A purely visual mix-up. mettait (\mɛ.tɛ\) and montait (\mɔ̃.tɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mettait is recorded at frequency rank #6,631, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛ.tɛ\. montait is at rank #16,679, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.tɛ\.

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 23310, this pair ranks #353,236 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mettait vs montait

Shared letters: aimt. Private to "mettait": e. Private to "montait": no.

"mettait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "montait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mettait ← emttait · metait · metatit · mettaitt · mettati · mettiat · mmettait · mtetait
  • montait ← mmontait · mnotait · monatit · monntait · montaitt · montati · montiat · monttait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mettait" for "montait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɛ.tɛ\ versus \mɔ̃.tɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mettait" or "montait"?
"mettait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,631 in our French list, against #16,679 for "montait". 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 "mettait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "montait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,236 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mettait" and "montait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mentant vs montait". 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 #353,236 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