mosvsMP4Which spelling fits?

Quick tell: mos is a adverb, MP4 is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mos” is an adverb and “MP4” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,917
“mos” frequency rank
#49,242
“MP4” frequency rank
82159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mos MP4
Definition Ne … pas : négation à l'impératif, au subjonctif, après në « si » et duke « en ». Norme d’encodage multimédia (audio ou vidéo) sous forme numérique.

Where the eye mixes mos and MP4

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. mos runs 3 letters (CVC) against MP4's 2 (CC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mos
3 ch
MP4

Why the eye confuses mos with MP4

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mos is \mos\ while MP4 is \ɛm.pe.katʁ\. 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 (adverb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mos is recorded at frequency rank #32,917, classified as anadv, pronounced \mos\. MP4 is at rank #49,242, tagged as aname, pronounced \ɛm.pe.katʁ\.

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 82159, this pair ranks #17,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mos vs MP4

Shared letters: m. Private to "mos": os. Private to "MP4": p.

"mos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "MP4" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mos" for "MP4" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mos" is an adverb and "MP4" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mos" or "MP4"?
"mos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,917 in our French list, against #49,242 for "MP4". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "MP4" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mos" and "MP4" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MP4 vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,291 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