maintevsmaneConfusable pair

Quick tell: mainte is a adjective, mane is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mainte” is an adjective and “mane” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,723
“mainte” frequency rank
#47,441
“mane” frequency rank
93164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mainte mane
Definition Féminin singulier de maint. Crinière.

Where the eye mixes mainte and mane

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
mainte
4 ch
mane

Look-alike desk: mainte vs mane

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mainte is \mɛ̃t\ while mane is \meɪn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93164, 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\. mane is at rank #47,441, tagged as anoun, pronounced \meɪn\.

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 93164, this pair ranks #2,464 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mainte vs mane

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "mainte": it. Private to "mane": -.

"mainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "mane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mainteaminte · mainet · mainnte · maintte · maitne · manite · miante · mmainte
  • manemmane · mnae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mainte" and "mane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mainte" is an adjective and "mane" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mainte" or "mane"?
"mainte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,723 in our French list, against #47,441 for "mane". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,464 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mainte" and "mane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid 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 #2,464 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list