Which to use
“maintenus” and “maintiens” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,064
- “maintenus” frequency rank
- #23,929
- “maintiens” frequency rank
- 42993
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maintenus | maintiens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de maintenu. | Pluriel de maintien. |
Where the eye mixes maintenus and maintiens
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. maintenus (CVVCCVCVC) and maintiens (CVVCCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: maintenus vs maintiens
A purely visual mix-up. maintenus (\mɛ̃.tə.ny\) and maintiens (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maintenus is recorded at frequency rank #19,064, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛ̃.tə.ny\. maintiens is at rank #23,929, tagged as anoun, 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 42993, this pair ranks #221,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maintenus vs maintiens
Shared letters: aeimnst. Private to "maintenus": u. Private to "maintiens": -.
"maintenus" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC · "maintiens" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maintenus" and "maintiens" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maintenus" or "maintiens" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "maintenus" and "maintiens" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maintenus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maintiens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maintenus" and "maintiens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maintenon vs maintenus". 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 #221,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.