Which to use
“minis” is an adjective and “moins” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,868
- “minis” frequency rank
- #118
- “moins” frequency rank
- 40986
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | minis | moins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mini. | Comparatif de peu. Servant à marquer l’infériorité d’une personne ou d’une chose, comparée à une autre ou à elle-même sous quelque rapport de qualité, de quantité, d’action, etc. |
Where the eye mixes minis and moins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. minis (CVCVC) and moins (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between minis and moins
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: minis is \mi.ni\ while moins is \mwɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
minis is recorded at frequency rank #40,868, classified as anadj, pronounced \mi.ni\. moins is at rank #118, tagged as anadv, pronounced \mwɛ̃\.
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 40986, this pair ranks #236,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of minis vs moins
Shared letters: imns. Private to "minis": -. Private to "moins": o.
"minis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "moins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "minis" and "moins" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "minis" or "moins"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "minis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "minis" and "moins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minis vs minois". 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 #236,442 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.