maçonvsmaisonWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: maçon is a adjective, maison is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maçon” is an adjective and “maison” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,438
“maçon” frequency rank
#235
“maison” frequency rank
15673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maçon maison
Definition Qui appartient au métier des maçons ou leur est comparable. Bâtiment servant de logis, d’habitation, de demeure.

Where the eye mixes maçon and maison

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
maçon
6 ch
maison

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maçon is \ma.sɔ̃\ while maison is \me.zɔ̃\. 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 15673, 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\. maison is at rank #235, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.zɔ̃\.

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 15673, this pair ranks #391,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maçon vs maison

Shared letters: amno. Private to "maçon": ç. Private to "maison": is.

"maçon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "maison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maisonamison · maiosn · maisno · maisonn · maisson · masion · miason · mmaison

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maçon" and "maison" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maçon" is an adjective and "maison" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maçon" or "maison"?
"maison" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #235 in our French list, against #15,438 for "maçon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list