manquavsmanquéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: manqua is a verb, manquée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“manqua” is a verb and “manquée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,544
“manqua” frequency rank
#22,932
“manquée” frequency rank
66476
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manqua manquée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de manquer. Féminin singulier de manqué.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set manqua and manquée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
manqua
7 ch
manquée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manqua is \mɑ̃.ka\ while manquée is \mɑ̃.ke\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66476, 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\. manquée is at rank #22,932, tagged as anadj, 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 66476, this pair ranks #67,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manqua vs manquée

Shared letters: amnqu. Private to "manqua": -. Private to "manquée": .

"manqua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "manquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquaamnqua · mannqua · manqau · manqqua · manuqa · maqnua · mmanqua · mnaqua

Frequency comparison

manqua#43,544
manquée#22,932

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manqua" and "manquée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manqua" is a verb and "manquée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "manqua" or "manquée"?
"manquée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,932 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.

Remembering manqua vs manquée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “manqua”; for an adjective, it's “manquée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “manqua” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list