minevsminuteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,885
“mine” frequency rank
#1,778
“minute” frequency rank
4663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mine minute
Definition Endroit d’où l’on extrait le minerai, par opposition aux carrières. Elles peuvent être souterraines ou à ciel ouvert. Unité de mesure de temps, compatible avec le Système international, et qui compte soixante secondes. Son symbole est min.

Where the eye mixes mine and minute

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

4 ch
mine
6 ch
minute

Look-alike desk: mine vs minute

A purely visual mix-up. mine (\min\) and minute (\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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mine is recorded at frequency rank #2,885, classified as anoun, pronounced \min\. minute is at rank #1,778, 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 4663, this pair ranks #431,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mine vs minute

Shared letters: eimn. Private to "mine": -. Private to "minute": tu.

"mine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "minute" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mineimne · minne · mmine · mnie
  • minuteimnute · minnute · mintue · minuet · minutte · miunte · mminute · mniute

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mine" for "minute" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\min\ versus \mi.nyt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mine" or "minute"?
"minute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,778 in our French list, against #2,885 for "mine". 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 "mine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "minute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #431,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mine" and "minute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mine 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 #431,017 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