Which to use
“maison” and “mason” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #235
- “maison” frequency rank
- #14,730
- “mason” frequency rank
- 14965
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maison | mason |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bâtiment servant de logis, d’habitation, de demeure. | Maçon. |
Where the eye mixes maison and mason
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. maison (\me.zɔ̃\) and mason (\ˈmeɪ.sən\) 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 14965, 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\. mason is at rank #14,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmeɪ.sən\.
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 14965, this pair ranks #394,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maison vs mason
Shared letters: amnos. Private to "maison": i. Private to "mason": -.
"maison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mason" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC