Which to use
“maçon” is an adjective and “main” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,438
- “maçon” frequency rank
- #385
- “main” frequency rank
- 15823
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maçon | main |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui appartient au métier des maçons ou leur est comparable. | Partie du corps humain située au bout du bras, qui s’étend du poignet jusqu’au bout des doigts, qui sert à la préhension et au toucher. |
Where the eye mixes maçon and main
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maçon runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against main's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maçon and main
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maçon is \ma.sɔ̃\ while main is \mɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maçon is recorded at frequency rank #15,438, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.sɔ̃\. main is at rank #385, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ̃\.
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 15823, this pair ranks #390,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maçon vs main
Shared letters: amn. Private to "maçon": oç. Private to "main": i.
"maçon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "main" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- main ← mainn · mian · mmain
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maçon" and "main" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maçon" or "main" 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 "maçon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "main" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #390,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maçon" and "main" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maçon vs macros". 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 #390,690 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.