Which to use
“machin” and “machins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,738
- “machin” frequency rank
- #33,338
- “machins” frequency rank
- 44076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | machin | machins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mot général utilisé pour désigner une notion ou un objet qu’on ne veut pas ou qu’on ne sait pas nommer plus précisément (pour une personne on dit : Machin). | Pluriel de machin. |
Same sound, different letters: machin vs machins
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. machin runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against machins's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - machin and machins
This is the hard kind. machin and machins are pronounced identically (\ma.ʃɛ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “machin” sits inside “machins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
machin is recorded at frequency rank #10,738, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʃɛ̃\. machins is at rank #33,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʃɛ̃\.
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 44076, this pair ranks #213,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of machin vs machins
Shared letters: achimn. Private to "machin": -. Private to "machins": s.
"machin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "machins" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "machin" and "machins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "machin" or "machins" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "machin" / "machins". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "machin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "machins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #213,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "machin" and "machins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machina vs machins". 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 #213,240 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.