monthvsmottaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#45,178
“month” frequency rank
#25,405
“motta” frequency rank
70583
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature month motta
Definition Mois. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe motter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set month and motta apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
month
5 ch
motta

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: month is \mʌnθ\ while motta is \mɔ.ta\. 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 70583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

month is recorded at frequency rank #45,178, classified as anoun, pronounced \mʌnθ\. motta is at rank #25,405, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.ta\.

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 70583, this pair ranks #50,785 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of month vs motta

Shared letters: mot. Private to "month": hn. Private to "motta": a.

"month" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "motta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • monthmmonth · mnoth · monht · monnth · monthh · montth · motnh · omnth
  • mottammotta · mota · motat · mtota · omtta

Frequency comparison

month#45,178
motta#25,405

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "month" and "motta" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "month" is a noun and "motta" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "month" or "motta"?
"motta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,405 in our French list, against #45,178 for "month". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering month vs motta

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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