malgrévsmangéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: malgré is a preposition, mangée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“malgré” is a preposition and “mangée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#556
“malgré” frequency rank
#36,040
“mangée” frequency rank
36596
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malgré mangée
Definition Contre le vouloir de quelqu’un, contre le gré de. Participe passé féminin singulier de manger.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set malgré and mangée apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
malgré
6 ch
mangée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malgré is \mal.ɡʁe\ while mangée is \mɑ̃.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malgré is recorded at frequency rank #556, classified as aprep, pronounced \mal.ɡʁe\. mangée is at rank #36,040, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.ʒe\.

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 36596, this pair ranks #268,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malgré vs mangée

Shared letters: agmé. Private to "malgré": lr. Private to "mangée": en.

"malgré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "mangée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequency comparison

malgré#556
mangée#36,040

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malgré" and "mangée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malgré" is a preposition and "mangée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "malgré" or "mangée"?
"malgré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #556 in our French list, against #36,040 for "mangée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering malgré vs mangée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a preposition, it's “malgré”; for a verb, it's “mangée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “malgré” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list