moisvsmomWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#184
“mois” frequency rank
#28,257
“mom” frequency rank
28441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mois mom
Definition Chacune des douze parties de l’année, dont chacune contient trente ou trente et un jours, excepté la seconde (février), qui est de vingt-huit jours dans les années ordinaires, et de vingt-neuf dans les années bissextiles. Maman.

Where the eye mixes mois and mom

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

4 ch
mois
3 ch
mom

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mois (\mwa\) and mom (\ˈmɑm\) 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 28441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mois is recorded at frequency rank #184, classified as anoun, pronounced \mwa\. mom is at rank #28,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmɑm\.

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 28441, this pair ranks #322,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mois vs mom

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mois": is. Private to "mom": -.

"mois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moismios · mmois · moiss · mosi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mois" and "mom" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mwa\ versus \ˈmɑm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mois" or "mom"?
"mois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #184 in our French list, against #28,257 for "mom". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "mois" and "mom". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mois" and "mom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mom vs MWh". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list