moisvsmontWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#184
“mois” frequency rank
#2,684
“mont” frequency rank
2868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mois mont
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. 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 mois and mont

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

4 ch
mois
4 ch
mont

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mois (\mwa\) 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 2868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mois is recorded at frequency rank #184, classified as anoun, pronounced \mwa\. 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 2868, this pair ranks #435,321 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mois vs mont

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mois": is. Private to "mont": nt.

"mois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moismios · mmois · moiss · mosi
  • montmmont · mnot · monnt · montt · motn · omnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mois" and "mont" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mwa\ versus \mɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mois" or "mont"?
"mois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #184 in our French list, against #2,684 for "mont". 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 "mont". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mois" 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 #435,321 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mois" 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

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