Which to use
“maladie” is a noun and “malais” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,117
- “maladie” frequency rank
- #36,480
- “malais” frequency rank
- 37597
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maladie | malais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Problème de santé chez un être vivant qui se traduit par une baisse des capacités physiques ou par un dysfonctionnement, une altération du métabolisme. | Relatif aux Malais, aux populations de langue malaise, qui habitent la côte orientale de Sumatra, la péninsule de Malacca et le littoral de Bornéo. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maladie and malais apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maladie is \ma.la.di\ while malais is \ma.lɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maladie is recorded at frequency rank #1,117, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.la.di\. malais is at rank #36,480, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɛ\.
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 37597, this pair ranks #261,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maladie vs malais
Shared letters: ailm. Private to "maladie": de. Private to "malais": s.
"maladie" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "malais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maladie" and "malais" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "maladie" or "malais"?
Remembering maladie vs malais
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “maladie”; for an adjective, it's “malais”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maladie” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable