Which to use
“manquais” and “manquait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,949
- “manquais” frequency rank
- #5,783
- “manquait” frequency rank
- 42732
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manquais | manquait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. |
Same sound, different letters: manquais vs manquait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. manquais and manquait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - manquais / manquait
This is the hard kind. manquais and manquait 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 a single letter - s in “manquais” becomes t in “manquait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manquais is recorded at frequency rank #36,949, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɛ\. manquait is at rank #5,783, 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 42732, this pair ranks #223,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of manquais vs manquait
Shared letters: aimnqu. Private to "manquais": s. Private to "manquait": t.
"manquais" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC · "manquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "manquais" and "manquait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "manquais" or "manquait"?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "manquais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "manquait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #223,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manquais" and "manquait" 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 #223,353 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.