manvsmenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,571
“man” frequency rank
#7,194
“men” frequency rank
9765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature man men
Definition Variante obsoleta de mano. Forma del plural de man.

Where the eye mixes man and men

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

3 ch
man
3 ch
men

Why the eye confuses man with men

A purely visual mix-up. man ([ˈmãn]) and men (/mɛn/) 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 - a in “man” becomes e in “men”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

man is recorded at frequency rank #2,571, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmãn]. men is at rank #7,194, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɛn/.

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 9765, this pair ranks #300,898 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of man vs men

Shared letters: mn. Private to "man": a. Private to "men": e.

"man" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "men" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "man" for "men" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmãn] versus /mɛn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "man" or "men"?
"man" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,571 in our Spanish list, against #7,194 for "men". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "man" and "men" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "man" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "men" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,898 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "man" and "men" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "men vs mur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #300,898 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