mantesvsmarnesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,689
“mantes” frequency rank
#41,401
“marnes” frequency rank
63090
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mantes marnes
Definition Pluriel de mante. Pluriel de marne.

Where the eye mixes mantes and marnes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mantes and marnes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
mantes
6 ch
marnes

Look-alike desk: mantes vs marnes

A purely visual mix-up. mantes (\mɑ̃t\) and marnes (\maʁn\) 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 63090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mantes is recorded at frequency rank #21,689, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃t\. marnes is at rank #41,401, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁn\.

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 63090, this pair ranks #83,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mantes vs marnes

Shared letters: aemns. Private to "mantes": t. Private to "marnes": r.

"mantes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "marnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mantes ← amntes · manets · manntes · mantess · mantse · manttes · matnes · mmantes
  • marnes ← amrnes · manres · marens · marness · marnnes · marnse · marrnes · mmarnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mantes" for "marnes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃t\ versus \maʁn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mantes" or "marnes"?
"mantes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,689 in our French list, against #41,401 for "marnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mantes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mantes" and "marnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mane vs marnes". 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 #83,770 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