moivsmotWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: moi is a pronoun, mot is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“moi” is a pronoun and “mot” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#73
“moi” frequency rank
#493
“mot” frequency rank
566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moi mot
Definition Pronom tonique de la première personne du singulier. Succession de sons dans les langues parlées, ou de signes dans les langues des signes ou écrites, qui a un sens propre.

Where the eye mixes moi and mot

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

3 ch
moi
3 ch
mot

Why the eye confuses moi with mot

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moi is \mwa\ while mot is \mo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “moi” becomes t in “mot”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moi is recorded at frequency rank #73, classified as apron, pronounced \mwa\. mot is at rank #493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mo\.

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 566, this pair ranks #439,451 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of moi vs mot

Shared letters: mo. Private to "moi": i. Private to "mot": t.

"moi" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "moi" for "mot" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moi" is a pronoun and "mot" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "moi" vs "mot" - which ranks higher?
"moi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #73 in our French list, against #493 for "mot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,451 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moi" and "mot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mot vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #439,451 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