manquervsmoquerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,206
“manquer” frequency rank
#9,351
“moquer” frequency rank
12557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquer moquer
Definition Faillir ; tomber en faute. Se railler de quelqu’un ou de quelque chose, en rire, en faire un sujet de plaisanterie ou de dérision.

Where the eye mixes manquer and moquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
manquer
6 ch
moquer

Look-alike desk: manquer vs moquer

A purely visual mix-up. manquer (\mɑ̃.ke\) and moquer (\mɔ.ke\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manquer is recorded at frequency rank #3,206, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.ke\. moquer is at rank #9,351, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.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 12557, this pair ranks #404,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manquer vs moquer

Shared letters: emqru. Private to "manquer": an. Private to "moquer": o.

"manquer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "moquer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manqueramnquer · mannquer · manqeur · manqquer · manquerr · manqure · manuqer · maqnuer
  • moquermmoquer · moqeur · moqquer · moquerr · moqure · mouqer · mqouer · omquer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manquer" and "moquer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.ke\ versus \mɔ.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "manquer" vs "moquer" - which ranks higher?
"manquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,206 in our French list, against #9,351 for "moquer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquer" and "moquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquée vs moquer". 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 #404,747 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