mangervsmanquerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#791
“manger” frequency rank
#3,206
“manquer” frequency rank
3997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manger manquer
Definition Mâcher et avaler un aliment dans le but de se nourrir. Faillir ; tomber en faute.

Where the eye mixes manger and manquer

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

6 ch
manger
7 ch
manquer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. manger (\mɑ̃.ʒe\) and manquer (\mɑ̃.ke\) 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 3997, 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\. manquer is at rank #3,206, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.ke\.

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 3997, this pair ranks #432,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manger vs manquer

Shared letters: aemnr. Private to "manger": g. Private to "manquer": qu.

"manger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "manquer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mangeramnger · magner · manegr · mangerr · mangger · mangre · mannger · mmanger
  • manqueramnquer · mannquer · manqeur · manqquer · manquerr · manqure · manuqer · maqnuer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manger" and "manquer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.ʒe\ versus \mɑ̃.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manger" or "manquer"?
"manger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our French list, against #3,206 for "manquer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "manger" and "manquer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manger" and "manquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manger vs mangerai". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list