Which to use
“mahé” is a postp and “mail” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,035
- “mahé” frequency rank
- #2,936
- “mail” frequency rank
- 46971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mahé | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dans, dedans. | Petite masse cylindrique de bois, à long manche, dont on se servait pour jouer en poussant, en chassant avec force une boule de buis. |
Where the eye mixes mahé and mail
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mahé with mail
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mahé is \ma.ˈhe\ while mail is \maj\. 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 (postp vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mahé is recorded at frequency rank #44,035, classified as apostp, pronounced \ma.ˈhe\. mail is at rank #2,936, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maj\.
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 46971, this pair ranks #190,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mahé vs mail
Shared letters: am. Private to "mahé": hé. Private to "mail": il.
"mahé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mail ← amil · maill · mial · mmail
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mahé" for "mail" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mahé" vs "mail" - which ranks higher?
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 "mahé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mail" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #190,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mahé" and "mail" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mahé vs MWh". 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 #190,606 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.