Which to use
“montée” and “mottes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,089
- “montée” frequency rank
- #47,469
- “mottes” frequency rank
- 50558
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | montée | mottes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de monter. | Pluriel de motte. |
Where the eye mixes montée and mottes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. montée (CVCCVV) and mottes (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between montée and mottes
A purely visual mix-up. montée (\mɔ̃.te\) and mottes (\mɔt\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
montée is recorded at frequency rank #3,089, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ̃.te\. mottes is at rank #47,469, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔt\.
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 50558, this pair ranks #161,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of montée vs mottes
Shared letters: emot. Private to "montée": né. Private to "mottes": s.
"montée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "mottes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mottes ← mmottes · motes · motets · mottess · mottse · mtotes · omttes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "montée" for "mottes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "montée" vs "mottes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "montée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mottes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "montée" and "mottes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mottes vs muettes". 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 #161,699 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.