modevsmontTell them apart

Which to use

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

#585
“mode” frequency rank
#2,684
“mont” frequency rank
3269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mode mont
Definition Manière de voir ou d’agir ; fantaisie. Montagne. Il s’emploie surtout dans certaines expressions géographiques consacrées par l’usage. Au pluriel, le terme géographique est généralement suivi de la préposition de.

Where the eye mixes mode and mont

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mode
4 ch
mont

Why the eye confuses mode with mont

A purely visual mix-up. mode (\mɔd\) and mont (\mɔ̃\) 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 3269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mode is recorded at frequency rank #585, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔd\. mont is at rank #2,684, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ̃\.

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 3269, this pair ranks #434,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mode vs mont

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mode": de. Private to "mont": nt.

"mode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modemdoe · mmode · modde · moed · omde
  • montmmont · mnot · monnt · montt · motn · omnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mode" for "mont" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɔd\ versus \mɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mode" or "mont"?
"mode" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #585 in our French list, against #2,684 for "mont". 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 "mode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mont" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mode" and "mont" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mont 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 #434,431 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