MarievsMärzWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Marie” and “März” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,138
“Marie” frequency rank
#621
“März” frequency rank
3759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Marie März
Definition Geld der dritte Monat im Jahr

Where the eye mixes Marie and März

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Marie
4 ch
März

Why the eye confuses Marie with März

A purely visual mix-up. Marie ([maˈʁiː]) and März ([mɛʁt͡s]) 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 3759, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Marie is recorded at frequency rank #3,138, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈʁiː]. März is at rank #621, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛʁt͡s].

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 3759, this pair ranks #1,999,437 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Marie vs März

Shared letters: mr. Private to "Marie": aei. Private to "März": .

"Marie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "März" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Marieamrie · maire · marei · marrie · mmarie · mraie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Marie" for "März" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([maˈʁiː] versus [mɛʁt͡s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Marie" vs "März" - which ranks higher?
"März" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #621 in our German list, against #3,138 for "Marie". 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 "Marie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "März" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,437 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Marie" and "März" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marcia vs Marie". 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 #1,999,437 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