manquavsmanquaisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#43,544
“manqua” frequency rank
#36,949
“manquais” frequency rank
80493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manqua manquais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de manquer. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer.

Where the eye mixes manqua and manquais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. manqua runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against manquais's 8 (CVCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
manqua
8 ch
manquais

Look-alike desk: manqua vs manquais

A purely visual mix-up. manqua (\mɑ̃.ka\) and manquais (\mɑ̃.kɛ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “manqua” sits inside “manquais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80493, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manqua is recorded at frequency rank #43,544, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.ka\. manquais is at rank #36,949, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɛ\.

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 80493, this pair ranks #20,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manqua vs manquais

Shared letters: amnqu. Private to "manqua": -. Private to "manquais": is.

"manqua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "manquais" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquaamnqua · mannqua · manqau · manqqua · manuqa · maqnua · mmanqua · mnaqua
  • manquaisamnquais · mannquais · manqauis · manqquais · manquaiss · manquasi · manquias · manuqais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manqua" and "manquais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.ka\ versus \mɑ̃.kɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manqua" or "manquais"?
"manquais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,949 in our French list, against #43,544 for "manqua". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manqua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manquais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manqua" and "manquais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manqua vs mantra". 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 #20,773 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