mansovsmantosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#23,488
“manso” frequency rank
#46,658
“mantos” frequency rank
70146
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manso mantos
Definition De carácter dócil y tranquilo. Forma del plural de manto.

Where the eye mixes manso and mantos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. manso runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mantos's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
manso
6 ch
mantos

Visual trap between manso and mantos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manso is [ˈmãnso] while mantos is [ˈmãn̪t̪os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manso is recorded at frequency rank #23,488, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmãnso]. mantos is at rank #46,658, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmãn̪t̪os].

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 70146, this pair ranks #30,356 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manso vs mantos

Shared letters: amnos. Private to "manso": -. Private to "mantos": t.

"manso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mantos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manso ← amnso · mannso · mansso · masno · mmanso · mnaso
  • mantos ← amntos · manntos · manots · mantoss · mantso · manttos · matnos · mmantos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manso" for "mantos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manso" is an adjective and "mantos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "manso" or "mantos" show up more?
"manso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,488 in our Spanish list, against #46,658 for "mantos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mantos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,356 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manso" and "mantos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mantis vs mantos". 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 #30,356 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