marinsvsminsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: marins is a adjective, mins is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,543
“marins” frequency rank
#38,919
“mins” frequency rank
42462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marins mins
Definition Masculin pluriel de marin. Pluriel de min.

Where the eye mixes marins and mins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
marins
4 ch
mins

Look-alike desk: marins vs mins

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marins is \ma.ʁɛ̃\ while mins is \min\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marins is recorded at frequency rank #3,543, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʁɛ̃\. mins is at rank #38,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced \min\.

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 42462, this pair ranks #225,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marins vs mins

Shared letters: imns. Private to "marins": ar. Private to "mins": -.

"marins" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "mins" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marinsamrins · mairns · marinns · marinss · marisn · marnis · marrins · mmarins
  • minsimns · minns · minss · misn · mmins · mnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marins" for "mins" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marins" is an adjective and "mins" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "marins" or "mins"?
"marins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,543 in our French list, against #38,919 for "mins". 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 "marins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marins" and "mins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mins vs mito". 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 #225,436 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