mahvsMJCTell them apart

Quick tell: mah is a determiner, MJC is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mah” is a determiner and “MJC” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,174
“mah” frequency rank
#45,739
“MJC” frequency rank
79913
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mah MJC
Definition Mon, ma. Maison des jeunes et de la culture.

Where the eye mixes mah and MJC

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. mah (CVC) and MJC (CCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
mah
3 ch
MJC

Look-alike desk: mah vs MJC

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mah is \mɑː\ while MJC is \ɛm.ʒi.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mah is recorded at frequency rank #34,174, classified as adet, pronounced \mɑː\. MJC is at rank #45,739, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛm.ʒi.se\.

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 79913, this pair ranks #22,169 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mah vs MJC

Shared letters: m. Private to "mah": ah. Private to "MJC": cj.

"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "MJC" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mah" and "MJC" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mah" is a determiner and "MJC" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mah" or "MJC" show up more?
"mah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,174 in our French list, against #45,739 for "MJC". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "MJC" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,169 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mah" and "MJC" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MJC vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #22,169 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list