Which to use
“mails” and “malt” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,725
- “mails” frequency rank
- #26,431
- “malt” frequency rank
- 34156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mails | malt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mail. | Grains de céréales que l’on a fait germer, puis sécher pour faire cesser cette germination. Ils sont principalement utilisés pour la fabrication de la bière, mais aussi du whisky. |
Where the eye mixes mails and malt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mails with malt
A purely visual mix-up. mails (\maj\) and malt (\malt\) 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 34156, 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\. malt is at rank #26,431, tagged as anoun, pronounced \malt\.
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 34156, this pair ranks #285,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mails vs malt
Shared letters: alm. Private to "mails": is. Private to "malt": t.
"mails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "malt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mails" and "malt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mails" vs "malt" - which ranks higher?
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 "mails" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mails" and "malt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs malt". 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 #285,782 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.