Which to use
“manquait” is a verb and “manquante” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,783
- “manquait” frequency rank
- #31,594
- “manquante” frequency rank
- 37377
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manquait | manquante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. | Féminin singulier de manquant. |
Where the eye mixes manquait and manquante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. manquait runs 8 letters (CVCCVVVC) against manquante's 9 (CVCCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between manquait and manquante
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manquait is \mɑ̃.kɛ\ while manquante is \mɑ̃.kɑ̃t\. 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 37377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manquait is recorded at frequency rank #5,783, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɛ\. manquante is at rank #31,594, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɑ̃t\.
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 37377, this pair ranks #262,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of manquait vs manquante
Shared letters: amnqtu. Private to "manquait": i. Private to "manquante": e.
"manquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC · "manquante" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "manquait" for "manquante" ever safe?
Which is more common, "manquait" or "manquante"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "manquait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "manquante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manquait" and "manquante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manquante vs masquant". 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 #262,915 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.