moudrevsmûreWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,919
“moudre” frequency rank
#22,950
“mûre” frequency rank
55869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moudre mûre
Definition Mettre en poudre au moyen d’un moulin. Fruit composé comestible des mûriers (Morus) de couleur d’abord blanchâtre, puis rouge et enfin noire à maturité. Il est composé de petites baies globuleuses formées par le périanthe devenu charnu et portant un petit akène qui est le vrai fruit, et accolées les unes aux autres en épi.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
moudre
4 ch
mûre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moudre is \mudʁ\ while mûre is \myʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moudre is recorded at frequency rank #32,919, classified as averb, pronounced \mudʁ\. mûre is at rank #22,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced \myʁ\.

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 55869, this pair ranks #124,687 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of moudre vs mûre

Shared letters: emr. Private to "moudre": dou. Private to "mûre": û.

"moudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "mûre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moudremmoudre · modure · mouddre · mouder · moudrre · mourde · muodre · omudre

Frequency comparison

moudre#32,919
mûre#22,950

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moudre" and "mûre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moudre" is a verb and "mûre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "moudre" or "mûre"?
"mûre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,950 in our French list, against #32,919 for "moudre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering moudre vs mûre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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