Which to use
“mâche” and “mythe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,456
- “mâche” frequency rank
- #5,586
- “mythe” frequency rank
- 35042
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mâche | mythe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vulgaire de Valerianella locusta, plante potagère de la famille des Caprifoliaceae (caprifoliacées) que l'on mange en salade. | Récit fabuleux d'origine immémoriale contenant un sens allégorique fondateur d'une communauté humaine et de son environnement. |
Where the eye mixes mâche and mythe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mâche and mythe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between mâche and mythe
A purely visual mix-up. mâche (\mɑʃ\) and mythe (\mit\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35042, 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\. mythe is at rank #5,586, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mit\.
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 35042, this pair ranks #279,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mâche vs mythe
Shared letters: ehm. Private to "mâche": câ. Private to "mythe": ty.
"mâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mythe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mythe ← mmythe · mtyhe · myhte · myteh · mythhe · mytthe · myythe · ymthe
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mâche" for "mythe" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "mâche" or "mythe" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mâche" and "mythe" 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 "mythe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #279,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mâche" and "mythe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mâche vs mane". 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 #279,585 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.