montrésvsmottesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,344
“montrés” frequency rank
#47,469
“mottes” frequency rank
66813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature montrés mottes
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel de montrer. Pluriel de motte.

Where the eye mixes montrés and mottes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. montrés runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against mottes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
montrés
6 ch
mottes

Why the eye confuses montrés with mottes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: montrés is \mɔ̃.tʁe\ 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

montrés is recorded at frequency rank #19,344, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.tʁe\. 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 66813, this pair ranks #66,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of montrés vs mottes

Shared letters: most. Private to "montrés": nré. Private to "mottes": e.

"montrés" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "mottes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mottes ← mmottes · motes · motets · mottess · mottse · mtotes · omttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "montrés" and "mottes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "montrés" is a verb and "mottes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "montrés" vs "mottes" - which ranks higher?
"montrés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,344 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "montrés" 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 #66,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "montrés" 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 #66,133 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list