molevsmoyaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mole is a noun, moya is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mole” is a noun and “moya” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,923
“mole” frequency rank
#45,744
“moya” frequency rank
84667
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mole moya
Definition Unité de mesure de quantité de matière du Système international, dont le symbole est mol. Une mole contient autant de particules individuelles qu’il y a d’atomes dans 12 grammes de carbone 12 ; ce nombre est appelé nombre d’Avogadro, et est de l’ordre de 6,022×10²³. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe moyer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mole and moya apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
mole
4 ch
moya

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mole is \mɔl\ while moya is \mwa.ja\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mole is recorded at frequency rank #38,923, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔl\. moya is at rank #45,744, tagged as averb, pronounced \mwa.ja\.

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 84667, this pair ranks #12,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mole vs moya

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mole": el. Private to "moya": ay.

"mole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "moya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • molemloe · mmole · moel · omle
  • moyammoya · moay · moyya · myoa · omya

Frequency comparison

mole#38,923
moya#45,744

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mole" and "moya" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mole" is a noun and "moya" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mole" or "moya"?
"mole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,923 in our French list, against #45,744 for "moya". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering mole vs moya

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “mole”; for a verb, it's “moya”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mole” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list