mamanvsmamarTell them apart

Which to use

“maman” and “mamar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,113
“maman” frequency rank
#21,394
“mamar” frequency rank
64507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maman mamar
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de mamar o de mamarse. Aspirar con fuerza, usando los labios y la succión de la garganta para extraer algo del material o recipiente que lo contiene, en particular la leche materna del seno.

Where the eye mixes maman and mamar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maman and mamar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
maman
5 ch
mamar

Visual trap between maman and mamar

A purely visual mix-up. maman ([ˈmamãn]) and mamar ([maˈmaɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “maman” becomes r in “mamar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maman is recorded at frequency rank #43,113, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmamãn]. mamar is at rank #21,394, tagged as averb, pronounced [maˈmaɾ].

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 64507, this pair ranks #45,379 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maman vs mamar

Shared letters: am. Private to "maman": n. Private to "mamar": r.

"maman" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mamar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maman ← amman · maamn · mamann · mamman · mamna · mmaan · mmaman
  • mamar ← maamr · mamarr · mammar · mamra · mmaar · mmamar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maman" and "mamar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmamãn] versus [maˈmaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "maman" or "mamar" show up more?
"mamar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,394 in our Spanish list, against #43,113 for "maman". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maman" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mamar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,379 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maman" and "mamar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maman vs Mamani". 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 #45,379 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list