mancevsmantesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,727
“mance” frequency rank
#21,689
“mantes” frequency rank
67416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mance mantes
Definition Manche d’un vêtement. Pluriel de mante.

Where the eye mixes mance and mantes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mance runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mantes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mance
6 ch
mantes

Look-alike desk: mance vs mantes

A purely visual mix-up. mance (\ˈman.t͡ʃə\) and mantes (\mɑ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mance is recorded at frequency rank #45,727, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈman.t͡ʃə\. mantes is at rank #21,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃t\.

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 67416, this pair ranks #63,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mance vs mantes

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "mance": c. Private to "mantes": st.

"mance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mantes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mance ← amnce · macne · mancce · manec · mannce · mmance · mnace
  • mantes ← amntes · manets · manntes · mantess · mantse · manttes · matnes · mmantes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mance" and "mantes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈman.t͡ʃə\ versus \mɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mance" vs "mantes" - which ranks higher?
"mantes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,689 in our French list, against #45,727 for "mance". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mance" and "mantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mance vs manor". 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 #63,527 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