Français homophones

mal/male/mall/malle/malles

"mal" is an adjective; "mall" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #101 of 9,139 French groups.

Data vintage 2026-05-06

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "mal" arrives as an adjective, while "mall" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "mal" then splits - "mal" (3 letters) vs "male" (4).
Shared stem "mal" then splits - "mal" (3 letters) vs "mall" (4).
Shared stem "mal" then splits - "mal" (3 letters) vs "malle" (5).
Shared stem "mal" then splits - "mal" (3 letters) vs "malles" (6).
Single-letter fork: "male" keeps e, "mall" writes l at letter 4.
Shared stem "mal" then splits - "male" (4 letters) vs "malle" (5).
Shared stem "mal" then splits - "male" (4 letters) vs "malles" (6).
Shared stem "mall" then splits - "mall" (4 letters) vs "malle" (5).
Shared stem "mall" then splits - "mall" (4 letters) vs "malles" (6).
Shared stem "malle" then splits - "malle" (5 letters) vs "malles" (6).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across mal, male, mall, malle, malles: alm. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

mal
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory alm · no private letters vs siblings
male
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory aelm · private e
mall
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory alm · no private letters vs siblings
malle
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory aelm · private e
malles
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVC
Inventory aelms · private es

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "mal" when you mean: Mauvais.
Write "male" when you mean: Féminin singulier de mal, dans le sens de mauvaise.
Write "mall" when you mean: Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de mallen.
Write "malle" when you mean: Coffre dont on se sert en voyage pour le transport de ses effets.
Write "malles" when you mean: Pluriel de malle.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

male ← amle · mael · mlae · mmale
mall ← amll · mlal · mmall
malle ← amlle · malel · mlale · mmalle
malles ← amlles · malels · males · malless · mallse · mlales

Each spelling

mal

adjective · /\mal\/ · #164 frequency

Mauvais.

male

adjective · /\mal\/ · #21,385 frequency

Féminin singulier de mal, dans le sens de mauvaise.

mall

verb · /\mal\/ · #35,138 frequency

Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de mallen.

malle

noun · /\mal\/ · #18,528 frequency

Coffre dont on se sert en voyage pour le transport de ses effets.

malles

noun · /\mal\/ · #46,281 frequency

Pluriel de malle.