Which to use
“manquaient” and “manquais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,275
- “manquaient” frequency rank
- #36,949
- “manquais” frequency rank
- 60224
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manquaient | manquais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. |
Same sound, different letters: manquaient vs manquais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. manquaient runs 10 letters (CVCCVVVVCC) against manquais's 8 (CVCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - manquaient and manquais
This is the hard kind. manquaient and manquais are pronounced identically (\mɑ̃.kɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manquaient is recorded at frequency rank #23,275, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɛ\. 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 60224, this pair ranks #98,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of manquaient vs manquais
Shared letters: aimnqu. Private to "manquaient": et. Private to "manquais": s.
"manquaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVVVCC · "manquais" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- manquaient ← amnquaient · mannquaient · manqauient · manqquaient · manquaeint · manquaiennt · manquaientt · manquaietn
- manquais ← amnquais · mannquais · manqauis · manqquais · manquaiss · manquasi · manquias · manuqais
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "manquaient" for "manquais" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "manquaient" or "manquais" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "manquaient" / "manquais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "manquaient" 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 #98,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manquaient" and "manquais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manqua vs manquais". 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 #98,772 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.