Which to use
“maison” and “maisons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #235
- “maison” frequency rank
- #1,483
- “maisons” frequency rank
- 1718
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maison | maisons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bâtiment servant de logis, d’habitation, de demeure. | Pluriel de maison. |
Where the eye mixes maison and maisons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between maison and maisons
A purely visual mix-up. maison (\me.zɔ̃\) and maisons (\mɛ.zɔ̃\) 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 extra letter(s) - “maison” sits inside “maisons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maison is recorded at frequency rank #235, classified as anoun, pronounced \me.zɔ̃\. maisons is at rank #1,483, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɛ.zɔ̃\.
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 1718, this pair ranks #437,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maison vs maisons
Shared letters: aimnos. Private to "maison": -. Private to "maisons": -.
"maison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "maisons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maison" for "maisons" ever safe?
Frequency check: "maison" vs "maisons" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maison" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maisons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maison" and "maisons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maison vs milon". 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 #437,524 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.