malheursvsmangeursTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,972
“malheurs” frequency rank
#32,893
“mangeurs” frequency rank
47865
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malheurs mangeurs
Definition Pluriel de malheur. Pluriel de mangeur.

Where the eye mixes malheurs and mangeurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. malheurs and mangeurs follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
malheurs
8 ch
mangeurs

Why the eye confuses malheurs with mangeurs

A purely visual mix-up. malheurs (\ma.lœʁ\) and mangeurs (\mɑ̃.ʒœʁ\) 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 47865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malheurs is recorded at frequency rank #14,972, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.lœʁ\. mangeurs is at rank #32,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃.ʒœʁ\.

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 47865, this pair ranks #183,536 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malheurs vs mangeurs

Shared letters: aemrsu. Private to "malheurs": hl. Private to "mangeurs": gn.

"malheurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC  ·  "mangeurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malheurs ← amlheurs · mahleurs · malehurs · malherus · malheurrs · malheurss · malheusr · malhheurs
  • mangeurs ← amngeurs · magneurs · manegurs · mangerus · mangeurrs · mangeurss · mangeusr · manggeurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malheurs" and "mangeurs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.lœʁ\ versus \mɑ̃.ʒœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "malheurs" vs "mangeurs" - which ranks higher?
"malheurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,972 in our French list, against #32,893 for "mangeurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "malheurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mangeurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #183,536 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malheurs" and "mangeurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mangeurs vs mangues". 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 #183,536 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