maintevsmaintesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mainte” and “maintes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,723
“mainte” frequency rank
#10,028
“maintes” frequency rank
55751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mainte maintes
Definition Féminin singulier de maint. Féminin pluriel de maint.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mainte and maintes apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
mainte
7 ch
maintes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. mainte and maintes are pronounced identically (\mɛ̃t\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mainte” sits inside “maintes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55751, 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\. maintes is at rank #10,028, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃t\.

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 55751, this pair ranks #125,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mainte vs maintes

Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "mainte": -. Private to "maintes": s.

"mainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "maintes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mainteaminte · mainet · mainnte · maintte · maitne · manite · miante · mmainte
  • maintesamintes · mainets · mainntes · maintess · maintse · mainttes · maitnes · manites

Frequency comparison

mainte#45,723
maintes#10,028

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mainte" and "maintes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mɛ̃t\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "mainte" or "maintes"?
"maintes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,028 in our French list, against #45,723 for "mainte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering mainte vs maintes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mainte” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list