manevsmangeConfusable pair

Quick tell: mane is a noun, mange is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mane” is a noun and “mange” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,441
“mane” frequency rank
#2,323
“mange” frequency rank
49764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mane mange
Definition Crinière. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de manger.

Where the eye mixes mane and mange

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

4 ch
mane
5 ch
mange

Why the eye confuses mane with mange

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mane is \meɪn\ while mange is \mɑ̃ʒ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mane is recorded at frequency rank #47,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \meɪn\. mange is at rank #2,323, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃ʒ\.

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 49764, this pair ranks #168,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mane vs mange

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "mane": -. Private to "mange": g.

"mane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mange" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mane ← mmane · mnae
  • mange ← amnge · maneg · mangge · mannge · mmange · mnage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mane" for "mange" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mane" is a noun and "mange" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mane" or "mange"?
"mange" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,323 in our French list, against #47,441 for "mane". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mange" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #168,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mane" and "mange" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mane". 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 #168,021 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