Which to use
“mainte” is an adjective and “mante” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,723
- “mainte” frequency rank
- #40,857
- “mante” frequency rank
- 86580
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mainte | mante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de maint. | Vêtement de femme, ample et sans manches, qui se porte par dessus les autres vêtements, par temps froids. |
Where the eye mixes mainte and mante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mainte runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against mante's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mainte and mante
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mainte is \mɛ̃t\ while mante is \mɑ̃t\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86580, 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\. mante is at rank #40,857, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃t\.
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 86580, this pair ranks #9,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mainte vs mante
Shared letters: aemnt. Private to "mainte": i. Private to "mante": -.
"mainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "mante" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mainte" and "mante" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mainte" or "mante" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mainte" and "mante" 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 #9,507 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.