makesvsminesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,884
“makes” frequency rank
#3,341
“mines” frequency rank
45225
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature makes mines
Definition Pluriel de make. Pluriel de mine.

Where the eye mixes makes and mines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
makes
5 ch
mines

Visual trap between makes and mines

A purely visual mix-up. makes (\ˈmeɪks\) and mines (\min\) 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 45225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

makes is recorded at frequency rank #41,884, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈmeɪks\. mines is at rank #3,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced \min\.

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 45225, this pair ranks #204,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of makes vs mines

Shared letters: ems. Private to "makes": ak. Private to "mines": in.

"makes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makesamkes · maeks · makess · makkes · makse · mkaes · mmakes
  • minesimnes · miness · minnes · minse · mmines · mnies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "makes" for "mines" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈmeɪks\ versus \min\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "makes" vs "mines" - which ranks higher?
"mines" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,341 in our French list, against #41,884 for "makes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "makes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "makes" and "mines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maël vs makes". 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 #204,394 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