Which to use
“mâche” and “mance” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,456
- “mâche” frequency rank
- #45,727
- “mance” frequency rank
- 75183
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mâche | mance |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vulgaire de Valerianella locusta, plante potagère de la famille des Caprifoliaceae (caprifoliacées) que l'on mange en salade. | Manche d’un vêtement. |
Where the eye mixes mâche and mance
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mâche and mance follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses mâche with mance
A purely visual mix-up. mâche (\mɑʃ\) and mance (\ˈman.t͡ʃə\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75183, 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\. mance is at rank #45,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈman.t͡ʃə\.
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 75183, this pair ranks #34,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mâche vs mance
Shared letters: cem. Private to "mâche": hâ. Private to "mance": an.
"mâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mance ← amnce · macne · mancce · manec · mannce · mmance · mnace
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mâche" for "mance" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "mâche" or "mance" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mâche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mance" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #34,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mâche" and "mance" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mance vs manor". 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 #34,846 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.