Which to use
“maintenez” is a verb and “maintenues” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,907
- “maintenez” frequency rank
- #26,085
- “maintenues” frequency rank
- 63992
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maintenez | maintenues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de maintenir. | Pluriel de maintenue. |
Where the eye mixes maintenez and maintenues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. maintenez runs 9 letters (CVVCCVCVC) against maintenues's 10 (CVVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses maintenez with maintenues
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maintenez is \mɛ̃.tə.ne\ while maintenues is \mɛ̃.tə.ny\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maintenez is recorded at frequency rank #37,907, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛ̃.tə.ne\. maintenues is at rank #26,085, tagged as anoun, 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 63992, this pair ranks #79,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maintenez vs maintenues
Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "maintenez": z. Private to "maintenues": su.
"maintenez" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC · "maintenues" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- maintenez ← amintenez · mainetnez · mainntenez · mainteenz · maintenezz · maintennez · maintenze · maintneez
- maintenues ← amintenues · mainetnues · mainntenues · mainteneus · maintennues · maintenuess · maintenuse · mainteunes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maintenez" and "maintenues" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "maintenez" or "maintenues" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maintenez" and "maintenues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maintenez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maintenues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maintenez" and "maintenues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maintenez vs Maintenon". 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 #79,212 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.