Which to use
“mainte” is an adjective and “maintenu” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,723
- “mainte” frequency rank
- #7,589
- “maintenu” frequency rank
- 53312
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mainte | maintenu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de maint. | Participe passé masculin singulier de maintenir. |
Where the eye mixes mainte and maintenu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mainte runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against maintenu's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mainte vs maintenu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mainte is \mɛ̃t\ while maintenu is \mɛ̃.tə.ny\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mainte” sits inside “maintenu”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mainte is recorded at frequency rank #45,723, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃t\. maintenu is at rank #7,589, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛ̃.tə.ny\.
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 53312, this pair ranks #141,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mainte vs maintenu
Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "mainte": -. Private to "maintenu": u.
"mainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "maintenu" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mainte" and "maintenu" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mainte" vs "maintenu" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mainte" and "maintenu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maintenu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #141,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mainte" and "maintenu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mainte vs mane". 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 #141,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.