manquaitvsmanquentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,783
“manquait” frequency rank
#4,778
“manquent” frequency rank
10561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquait manquent
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de manquer.

Where the eye mixes manquait and manquent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
manquait
8 ch
manquent

Look-alike desk: manquait vs manquent

A purely visual mix-up. manquait (\mɑ̃.kɛ\) and manquent (\mɑ̃k\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10561, 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\. manquent is at rank #4,778, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃k\.

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 10561, this pair ranks #412,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manquait vs manquent

Shared letters: amnqtu. Private to "manquait": i. Private to "manquent": e.

"manquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC  ·  "manquent" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquaitamnquait · mannquait · manqauit · manqquait · manquaitt · manquati · manquiat · manuqait
  • manquentamnquent · mannquent · manqeunt · manqquent · manquennt · manquentt · manquetn · manqunet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manquait" for "manquent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.kɛ\ versus \mɑ̃k\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manquait" or "manquent"?
"manquent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,778 in our French list, against #5,783 for "manquait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "manquait" and "manquent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquait" and "manquent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manquait 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 #412,514 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