Which to use
“mails” and “main” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,725
- “mails” frequency rank
- #385
- “main” frequency rank
- 8110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mails | main |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mail. | 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 mails and main
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mails vs main
A purely visual mix-up. mails (\maj\) and main (\mɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mails is recorded at frequency rank #7,725, classified as anoun, pronounced \maj\. 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 8110, this pair ranks #421,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mails vs main
Shared letters: aim. Private to "mails": ls. Private to "main": n.
"mails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "main" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mails" and "main" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mails" or "main" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mails" and "main" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mails" 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 #421,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mails" and "main" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mails". 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 #421,099 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.