minutevsmonteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,778
“minute” frequency rank
#2,185
“monte” frequency rank
3963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minute monte
Definition Unité de mesure de temps, compatible avec le Système international, et qui compte soixante secondes. Son symbole est min. Accouplement des animaux.

Where the eye mixes minute and monte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
minute
5 ch
monte

Look-alike desk: minute vs monte

A purely visual mix-up. minute (\mi.nyt\) and monte (\mɔ̃t\) 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 3963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minute is recorded at frequency rank #1,778, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.nyt\. monte is at rank #2,185, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ̃t\.

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 3963, this pair ranks #432,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of minute vs monte

Shared letters: emnt. Private to "minute": iu. Private to "monte": o.

"minute" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "monte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • minuteimnute · minnute · mintue · minuet · minutte · miunte · mminute · mniute
  • montemmonte · mnote · monnte · montte · motne · omnte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "minute" and "monte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mi.nyt\ versus \mɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "minute" or "monte"?
"minute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,778 in our French list, against #2,185 for "monte". 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 "minute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minute" and "monte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "monte vs Monza". 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 #432,792 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