mollesvsmoquésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: molles is a adjective, moqués is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“molles” is an adjective and “moqués” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,445
“molles” frequency rank
#48,055
“moqués” frequency rank
74500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature molles moqués
Definition Féminin pluriel de mou. Participe passé masculin pluriel de moquer.

Where the eye mixes molles and moqués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
molles
6 ch
moqués

Look-alike desk: molles vs moqués

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: molles is \mɔl\ while moqués is \mɔ.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

molles is recorded at frequency rank #26,445, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔl\. moqués is at rank #48,055, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.ke\.

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 74500, this pair ranks #36,970 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of molles vs moqués

Shared letters: mos. Private to "molles": el. Private to "moqués": qué.

"molles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "moqués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mollesmloles · mmolles · molels · moles · molless · mollse · omlles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "molles" for "moqués" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "molles" is an adjective and "moqués" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "molles" or "moqués" show up more?
"molles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,445 in our French list, against #48,055 for "moqués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "molles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,970 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "molles" and "moqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquée vs moqués". 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

Confusion rank #36,970 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