Which to use
“mâche” is a noun and “mah” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,456
- “mâche” frequency rank
- #34,174
- “mah” frequency rank
- 63630
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mâche | mah |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vulgaire de Valerianella locusta, plante potagère de la famille des Caprifoliaceae (caprifoliacées) que l'on mange en salade. | Mon, ma. |
Where the eye mixes mâche and mah
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mâche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mah's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mâche and mah
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mâche is \mɑʃ\ while mah is \mɑː\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mâche is recorded at frequency rank #29,456, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑʃ\. mah is at rank #34,174, tagged as adet, pronounced \mɑː\.
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 63630, this pair ranks #81,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mâche vs mah
Shared letters: hm. Private to "mâche": ceâ. Private to "mah": a.
"mâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mâche" for "mah" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mâche" or "mah"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mâche" and "mah" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mâche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mâche" and "mah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mah vs MWh". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #81,009 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.