Which to use
“mairies” and “mamies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,527
- “mairies” frequency rank
- #40,365
- “mamies” frequency rank
- 58892
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mairies | mamies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mairie. | Pluriel de mamie. |
Where the eye mixes mairies and mamies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mairies runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against mamies's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses mairies with mamies
A purely visual mix-up. mairies (\me.ʁi\) and mamies (\ma.mi\) 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 58892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mairies is recorded at frequency rank #18,527, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.ʁi\. mamies is at rank #40,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.mi\.
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 58892, this pair ranks #106,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mairies vs mamies
Shared letters: aeims. Private to "mairies": r. Private to "mamies": -.
"mairies" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "mamies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mairies" for "mamies" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mairies" vs "mamies" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mairies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mamies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mairies" and "mamies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mamies vs manies". 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 #106,288 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.