moisvsmonoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#184
“mois” frequency rank
#15,942
“mono” frequency rank
16126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mois mono
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. Moniteur ou monitrice (dans le sens du métier), plus spécialement de colonie de vacances.

Where the eye mixes mois and mono

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

4 ch
mois
4 ch
mono

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mois (\mwa\) and mono (\mɔ.no\) 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 16126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mois is recorded at frequency rank #184, classified as anoun, pronounced \mwa\. mono is at rank #15,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.no\.

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 16126, this pair ranks #389,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mois vs mono

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mois": is. Private to "mono": n.

"mois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mono" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moismios · mmois · moiss · mosi
  • monommono · mnoo · monno · omno

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mois" and "mono" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mwa\ versus \mɔ.no\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mois" or "mono"?
"mois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #184 in our French list, against #15,942 for "mono". 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 "mono". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mono" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mois" and "mono" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mono 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

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