moinsvsMolinsTell them apart

Quick tell: moins is a adverb, Molins is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“moins” is an adverb and “Molins” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#118
“moins” frequency rank
#44,587
“Molins” frequency rank
44705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moins Molins
Definition 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. Nom de famille catalan.

Where the eye mixes moins and Molins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. moins runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against Molins's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
moins
6 ch
Molins

Why the eye confuses moins with Molins

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moins is \mwɛ̃\ while Molins is \molɛ̃s\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moins is recorded at frequency rank #118, classified as anadv, pronounced \mwɛ̃\. Molins is at rank #44,587, tagged as aname, pronounced \molɛ̃s\.

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 44705, this pair ranks #208,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moins vs Molins

Shared letters: imnos. Private to "moins": -. Private to "Molins": l.

"moins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "Molins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moins ← mions · mmoins · moinns · moinss · moisn · monis · omins
  • Molins ← mloins · mmolins · moilns · molinns · molinss · molisn · mollins · molnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moins" and "Molins" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moins" is an adverb and "Molins" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "moins" or "Molins" show up more?
"moins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #118 in our French list, against #44,587 for "Molins". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "moins" and "Molins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Molins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moins" and "Molins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maline vs Molins". 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 #208,459 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