manquesvsmasquéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: manques is a noun, masquée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“manques” is a noun and “masquée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,882
“manques” frequency rank
#33,345
“masquée” frequency rank
42227
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manques masquée
Definition Pluriel de manque. Féminin singulier de masqué.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set manques and masquée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
manques
7 ch
masquée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manques is \mɑ̃k\ while masquée is \mas.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manques is recorded at frequency rank #8,882, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃k\. masquée is at rank #33,345, 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 42227, this pair ranks #227,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manques vs masquée

Shared letters: aemqsu. Private to "manques": n. Private to "masquée": é.

"manques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "masquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquesamnques · mannques · manqeus · manqques · manquess · manquse · manuqes · maqnues

Frequency comparison

manques#8,882
masquée#33,345

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manques" and "masquée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manques" is a noun and "masquée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "manques" or "masquée"?
"manques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,882 in our French list, against #33,345 for "masquée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering manques vs masquée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “manques”; for an adjective, it's “masquée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “manques” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list