maïsvsmaneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“maïs” and “mane” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,849
“maïs” frequency rank
#47,441
“mane” frequency rank
54290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maïs mane
Definition Nom vernaculaire de Zea mays subsp. mays, — et de ses cultivars —, plante herbacée de la famille des Poaceae (ou Poacées ou Graminées), originaire du Mexique et du Guatemala, à tige droite et aux feuilles lancéolées, et que l’on cultive comme plante fourragère ou pour ses graines. Crinière.

Where the eye mixes maïs and mane

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
maïs
4 ch
mane

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. maïs (\ma.is\) and mane (\meɪn\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maïs is recorded at frequency rank #6,849, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.is\. mane is at rank #47,441, tagged as anoun, pronounced \meɪn\.

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 54290, this pair ranks #135,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maïs vs mane

Shared letters: am. Private to "maïs": . Private to "mane": en.

"maïs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manemmane · mnae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maïs" and "mane" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.is\ versus \meɪn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "maïs" or "mane"?
"maïs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,849 in our French list, against #47,441 for "mane". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list