mousvsmoveConfusable pair

Quick tell: mous is a adjective, move is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mous” is an adjective and “move” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,092
“mous” frequency rank
#21,699
“move” frequency rank
42791
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mous move
Definition Masculin pluriel de mou. Mouvement, geste, action, acte.

Where the eye mixes mous and move

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mous
4 ch
move

Visual trap between mous and move

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mous is \mu\ while move is \muːv\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mous is recorded at frequency rank #21,092, classified as anadj, pronounced \mu\. move is at rank #21,699, tagged as anoun, pronounced \muːv\.

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 42791, this pair ranks #222,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mous vs move

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mous": su. Private to "move": ev.

"mous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "move" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mousmmous · mosu · mouss · muos · omus
  • movemmove · moev · movve · mvoe · omve

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mous" and "move" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mous" is an adjective and "move" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mous" or "move" show up more?
"mous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,092 in our French list, against #21,699 for "move". 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 "mous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "move" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #222,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mous" and "move" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mous vs mud". 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 #222,927 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