montésvsmotsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,807
“montés” frequency rank
#570
“mots” frequency rank
12377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature montés mots
Definition Masculin pluriel de monté. Pluriel de mot.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set montés and mots apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
montés
4 ch
mots

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: montés is \mɔ̃.te\ while mots is \mo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 12377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

montés is recorded at frequency rank #11,807, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔ̃.te\. mots is at rank #570, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mo\.

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 12377, this pair ranks #405,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of montés vs mots

Shared letters: most. Private to "montés": . Private to "mots": -.

"montés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • motsmmots · motss · motts · mtos · omts

Frequency comparison

montés#11,807
mots#570

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "montés" and "mots" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "montés" is an adjective and "mots" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "montés" or "mots"?
"mots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #570 in our French list, against #11,807 for "montés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering montés vs mots

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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