Which to use
“maires” and “mines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,362
- “maires” frequency rank
- #3,341
- “mines” frequency rank
- 8703
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maires | mines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de maire. | Pluriel de mine. |
Where the eye mixes maires and mines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against mines's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses maires with mines
A purely visual mix-up. maires (\mɛʁ\) and mines (\min\) 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 8703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maires is recorded at frequency rank #5,362, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. mines is at rank #3,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced \min\.
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 8703, this pair ranks #419,118 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maires vs mines
Shared letters: eims. Private to "maires": ar. Private to "mines": n.
"maires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maires" and "mines" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "maires" or "mines"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "maires" and "mines" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #419,118 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maires" and "mines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs maires". 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 #419,118 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.