MarchvsmariConfusable pair

Quick tell: March is a name, mari is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“March” is a name and “mari” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,434
“March” frequency rank
#29,234
“mari” frequency rank
42668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature March mari
Definition der linke, in Mähren verlaufende, Nebenfluss der Donau Ehemann, Gatte, Gemahl, Gespons

Where the eye mixes March and mari

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

5 ch
March
4 ch
mari

Why the eye confuses March with mari

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: March is [maʁç] while mari is [ma.ʁi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

March is recorded at frequency rank #13,434, classified as aname, pronounced [maʁç]. mari is at rank #29,234, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ma.ʁi].

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 42668, this pair ranks #1,442,284 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of March vs mari

Shared letters: amr. Private to "March": ch. Private to "mari": i.

"March" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "mari" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Marchamrch · macrh · marcch · marchh · marhc · marrch · mmarch · mrach
  • mariamri · mair · marri · mmari · mrai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "March" for "mari" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "March" is a name and "mari" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "March" or "mari" show up more?
"March" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,434 in our German list, against #29,234 for "mari". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "March" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mari" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,442,284 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "March" and "mari" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mari vs mora". 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 #1,442,284 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list