molvsmonWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mol is a adjective, mon is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mol” is an adjective and “mon” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,654
“mol” frequency rank
#66
“mon” frequency rank
28720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mol mon
Definition Masculin singulier de mou devant une voyelle ou un h muet, et plus rarement devant une consonne. Marque la possession ou l’appartenance. Le possesseur est le locuteur, ce qu’il possède est au masculin singulier.

Where the eye mixes mol and mon

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

3 ch
mol
3 ch
mon

Look-alike desk: mol vs mon

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mol is \mɔl\ while mon is \mɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “mol” becomes n in “mon”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mol is recorded at frequency rank #28,654, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔl\. mon is at rank #66, tagged as adet, 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 28720, this pair ranks #321,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mol vs mon

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mol": l. Private to "mon": n.

"mol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mol" and "mon" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mol" is an adjective and "mon" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mol" or "mon" show up more?
"mon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #66 in our French list, against #28,654 for "mol". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mol" and "mon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mol vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #321,105 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