mangervsmangesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#791
“manger” frequency rank
#10,901
“manges” frequency rank
11692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manger manges
Definition Mâcher et avaler un aliment dans le but de se nourrir. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de manger.

Where the eye mixes manger and manges

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
manger
6 ch
manges

Visual trap between manger and manges

A purely visual mix-up. manger (\mɑ̃.ʒe\) and manges (\mɑ̃ʒ\) 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 a single letter - r in “manger” becomes s in “manges”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manger is recorded at frequency rank #791, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.ʒe\. manges is at rank #10,901, 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 11692, this pair ranks #408,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manger vs manges

Shared letters: aegmn. Private to "manger": r. Private to "manges": s.

"manger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "manges" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mangeramnger · magner · manegr · mangerr · mangger · mangre · mannger · mmanger
  • mangesamnges · magnes · manegs · mangess · mangges · mangse · mannges · mmanges

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manger" for "manges" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.ʒe\ versus \mɑ̃ʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "manger" or "manges" show up more?
"manger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our French list, against #10,901 for "manges". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "manger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manger" and "manges" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mane vs manges". 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 #408,207 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