Which to use
“mainte” is an adjective and “Malte” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,723
- “mainte” frequency rank
- #12,192
- “Malte” frequency rank
- 57915
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mainte | Malte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de maint. | État européen insulaire situé entre la Sicile et l’Afrique, composé des îles de Malte, de Gozo et de Comino. Sa capitale est La Valette. |
Where the eye mixes mainte and Malte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mainte with Malte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mainte is \mɛ̃t\ while Malte is \malt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57915, 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\. Malte is at rank #12,192, tagged as aname, 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 57915, this pair ranks #112,163 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mainte vs Malte
Shared letters: aemt. Private to "mainte": in. Private to "Malte": l.
"mainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "Malte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mainte" for "Malte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mainte" or "Malte"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Malte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #112,163 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mainte" and "Malte" 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 #112,163 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.