montéesvsmottesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: montées is a adjective, mottes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“montées” is an adjective and “mottes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,983
“montées” frequency rank
#47,469
“mottes” frequency rank
62452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature montées mottes
Definition Féminin pluriel de monté. Pluriel de motte.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set montées and mottes apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
montées
6 ch
mottes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: montées is \mɔ̃.te\ while mottes is \mɔt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

montées is recorded at frequency rank #14,983, classified as anadj, 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 62452, this pair ranks #87,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of montées vs mottes

Shared letters: emost. Private to "montées": . Private to "mottes": -.

"montées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "mottes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mottesmmottes · motes · motets · mottess · mottse · mtotes · omttes

Frequency comparison

montées#14,983
mottes#47,469

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "montées" and "mottes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "montées" is an adjective and "mottes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "montées" or "mottes"?
"montées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,983 in our French list, against #47,469 for "mottes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering montées vs mottes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “montées”; for a noun, it's “mottes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “montées” 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