majeursvsmineursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,889
“majeurs” frequency rank
#4,084
“mineurs” frequency rank
9973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature majeurs mineurs
Definition Masculin pluriel de majeur. Masculin pluriel de mineur.

Where the eye mixes majeurs and mineurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. majeurs and mineurs follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
majeurs
7 ch
mineurs

Look-alike desk: majeurs vs mineurs

A purely visual mix-up. majeurs (\ma.ʒœʁ\) and mineurs (\mi.nœʁ\) 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 9973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

majeurs is recorded at frequency rank #5,889, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʒœʁ\. mineurs is at rank #4,084, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mi.nœʁ\.

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 9973, this pair ranks #414,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of majeurs vs mineurs

Shared letters: emrsu. Private to "majeurs": aj. Private to "mineurs": in.

"majeurs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "mineurs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • majeursamjeurs · maejurs · majerus · majeurrs · majeurss · majeusr · majjeurs · majuers
  • mineursimneurs · mienurs · minerus · mineurrs · mineurss · mineusr · minneurs · minuers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "majeurs" for "mineurs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʒœʁ\ versus \mi.nœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "majeurs" or "mineurs" show up more?
"mineurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,084 in our French list, against #5,889 for "majeurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "majeurs" and "mineurs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "majeurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mineurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #414,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "majeurs" and "mineurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "majeurs vs mayeur". 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 #414,717 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list