marchevsMarthaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: marche is a verb, Martha is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“marche” is a verb and “Martha” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,946
“marche” frequency rank
#9,859
“Martha” frequency rank
34805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marche Martha
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de marchar o de marcharse. Grafía anticuada de Marta.

Where the eye mixes marche and Martha

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

6 ch
marche
6 ch
Martha

Why the eye confuses marche with Martha

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marche is [ˈmaɾt͡ʃe] while Martha is [ˈmaɾt̪a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marche is recorded at frequency rank #24,946, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɾt͡ʃe]. Martha is at rank #9,859, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈmaɾt̪a].

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 34805, this pair ranks #189,493 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marche vs Martha

Shared letters: ahmr. Private to "marche": ce. Private to "Martha": t.

"marche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "Martha" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marcheamrche · macrhe · marcche · marceh · marchhe · marhce · marrche · mmarche
  • Marthaamrtha · marhta · marrtha · martah · marthha · marttha · matrha · mmartha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marche" for "Martha" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marche" is a verb and "Martha" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "marche" or "Martha" show up more?
"Martha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,859 in our Spanish list, against #24,946 for "marche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "marche" and "Martha" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Martha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,493 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marche" and "Martha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macha vs marche". 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 #189,493 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list