mettonsvsmotionsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,715
“mettons” frequency rank
#29,452
“motions” frequency rank
36167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mettons motions
Definition Pluriel de metton. Pluriel de motion.

Where the eye mixes mettons and motions

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mettons (CVCCVCC) and motions (CVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
mettons
7 ch
motions

Look-alike desk: mettons vs motions

A purely visual mix-up. mettons (\me.tɔ̃\) and motions (\mɔ.sjɔ̃\) 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 36167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mettons is recorded at frequency rank #6,715, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.tɔ̃\. motions is at rank #29,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.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 36167, this pair ranks #271,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mettons vs motions

Shared letters: mnost. Private to "mettons": e. Private to "motions": i.

"mettons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "motions" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mettons ← emttons · metons · metotns · mettnos · mettonns · mettonss · mettosn · mmettons
  • motions ← mmotions · moitons · motinos · motionns · motionss · motiosn · motoins · mottions

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mettons" for "motions" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\me.tɔ̃\ versus \mɔ.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "mettons" or "motions" show up more?
"mettons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,715 in our French list, against #29,452 for "motions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mettons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "motions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mettons" and "motions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "montons vs motions". 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 #271,546 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