mantesvsminutesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#21,689
“mantes” frequency rank
#402
“minutes” frequency rank
22091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mantes minutes
Definition Pluriel de mante. Pluriel de minute.

Where the eye mixes mantes and minutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mantes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against minutes's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mantes
7 ch
minutes

Look-alike desk: mantes vs minutes

A purely visual mix-up. mantes (\mɑ̃t\) and minutes (\mi.nyt\) 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 22091, 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\. minutes is at rank #402, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.nyt\.

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 22091, this pair ranks #359,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mantes vs minutes

Shared letters: emnst. Private to "mantes": a. Private to "minutes": iu.

"mantes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "minutes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mantes ← amntes · manets · manntes · mantess · mantse · manttes · matnes · mmantes
  • minutes ← imnutes · minnutes · mintues · minuets · minutess · minutse · minuttes · miuntes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mantes" and "minutes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃t\ versus \mi.nyt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mantes" vs "minutes" - which ranks higher?
"minutes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #402 in our French list, against #21,689 for "mantes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mantes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "minutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #359,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mantes" and "minutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mantes vs mottes". 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 #359,848 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