minisvsmisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: minis is a adjective, mis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“minis” is an adjective and “mis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,868
“minis” frequency rank
#339
“mis” frequency rank
41207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minis mis
Definition Pluriel de mini. Participe passé masculin de mettre.

Where the eye mixes minis and mis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
minis
3 ch
mis

Look-alike desk: minis vs mis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: minis is \mi.ni\ while mis is \mi\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minis is recorded at frequency rank #40,868, classified as anadj, pronounced \mi.ni\. mis is at rank #339, tagged as averb, pronounced \mi\.

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 41207, this pair ranks #234,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of minis vs mis

Shared letters: ims. Private to "minis": n. Private to "mis": -.

"minis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • minisimnis · miins · miniss · minnis · minsi · mminis · mniis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "minis" for "mis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "minis" is an adjective and "mis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "minis" or "mis" show up more?
"mis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #339 in our French list, against #40,868 for "minis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "minis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minis" and "mis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minis vs minois". 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 #234,812 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