manquéevsmasquésConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,932
“manquée” frequency rank
#25,040
“masqués” frequency rank
47972
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquée masqués
Definition Féminin singulier de manqué. Masculin pluriel de masqué.

Where the eye mixes manquée and masqués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. manquée (CVCCVVV) and masqués (CVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
manquée
7 ch
masqués

Look-alike desk: manquée vs masqués

A purely visual mix-up. manquée (\mɑ̃.ke\) and masqués (\mas.ke\) 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 47972, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manquée is recorded at frequency rank #22,932, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.ke\. masqués is at rank #25,040, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mas.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 47972, this pair ranks #182,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manquée vs masqués

Shared letters: amqué. Private to "manquée": en. Private to "masqués": s.

"manquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "masqués" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manquée" and "masqués" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.ke\ versus \mas.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manquée" or "masqués"?
"manquée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,932 in our French list, against #25,040 for "masqués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "masqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquée" and "masqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquent vs masqués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #182,689 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