Which to use
“maintenu” and “maintient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,589
- “maintenu” frequency rank
- #6,215
- “maintient” frequency rank
- 13804
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maintenu | maintient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de maintenir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de maintenir. |
Where the eye mixes maintenu and maintient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. maintenu runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCV) against maintient's 9 (CVVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maintenu and maintient
A purely visual mix-up. maintenu (\mɛ̃.tə.ny\) and maintient (\mɛ̃.tjɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maintenu is recorded at frequency rank #7,589, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛ̃.tə.ny\. maintient is at rank #6,215, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛ̃.tjɛ̃\.
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 13804, this pair ranks #399,471 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maintenu vs maintient
Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "maintenu": u. Private to "maintient": -.
"maintenu" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV · "maintient" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maintenu" and "maintient" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "maintenu" vs "maintient" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "maintenu" and "maintient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maintenu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maintient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,471 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maintenu" and "maintient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maintenon vs maintenu". 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 #399,471 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.