Which to use
“maintiens” is a noun and “maintient” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,929
- “maintiens” frequency rank
- #6,215
- “maintient” frequency rank
- 30144
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maintiens | maintient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de maintien. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de maintenir. |
Same sound, different letters: maintiens vs maintient
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. maintiens and maintient follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Homophone desk: maintiens vs maintient
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: maintiens and maintient carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɛ̃.tjɛ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - s in “maintiens” becomes t in “maintient”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maintiens is recorded at frequency rank #23,929, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛ̃.tjɛ̃\. 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 30144, this pair ranks #312,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maintiens vs maintient
Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "maintiens": s. Private to "maintient": -.
"maintiens" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC · "maintient" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maintiens" and "maintient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "maintiens" or "maintient"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "maintiens" 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 #312,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maintiens" and "maintient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maintienne vs maintiens". 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 #312,216 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.