montrervsmortierWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#984
“montrer” frequency rank
#13,639
“mortier” frequency rank
14623
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature montrer mortier
Definition Faire voir ; exposer aux regards. Mélange pâteux, destiné à durcir, d’un liant et d’agrégats, servant à lier et sceller les pierres, les parpaings ou les briques d’une construction. Généralement il s'agit d'un mélange de sable, de ciment ou de chaux et d'eau.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
montrer
7 ch
mortier

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: montrer is \mɔ̃.tʁe\ while mortier is \mɔʁ.tje\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14623, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

montrer is recorded at frequency rank #984, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.tʁe\. mortier is at rank #13,639, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.tje\.

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 14623, this pair ranks #395,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of montrer vs mortier

Shared letters: emort. Private to "montrer": n. Private to "mortier": i.

"montrer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "mortier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • montrermmontrer · mnotrer · monntrer · monrter · monterr · montrerr · montrrer · monttrer
  • mortiermmortier · moriter · morrtier · morteir · mortierr · mortire · morttier · motrier

Frequency comparison

montrer#984
mortier#13,639

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "montrer" and "mortier" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "montrer" is a verb and "mortier" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "montrer" or "mortier"?
"montrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #984 in our French list, against #13,639 for "mortier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering montrer vs mortier

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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