makesvsmisesTell them apart

Quick tell: makes is a noun, mises is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“makes” is a noun and “mises” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,884
“makes” frequency rank
#2,485
“mises” frequency rank
44369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature makes mises
Definition Pluriel de make. Féminin pluriel de mise.

Where the eye mixes makes and mises

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

5 ch
makes
5 ch
mises

Why the eye confuses makes with mises

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: makes is \ˈmeɪks\ while mises is \miz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44369, 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\. mises is at rank #2,485, tagged as anadj, pronounced \miz\.

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 44369, this pair ranks #210,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of makes vs mises

Shared letters: ems. Private to "makes": ak. Private to "mises": i.

"makes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mises" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makesamkes · maeks · makess · makkes · makse · mkaes · mmakes
  • misesimses · miess · misess · misses · mmises · msies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "makes" for "mises" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "makes" is a noun and "mises" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "makes" or "mises"?
"mises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,485 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.

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 "makes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "makes" and "mises" 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 #210,940 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