Which to use
“mâche” and “mare” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,456
- “mâche” frequency rank
- #11,992
- “mare” frequency rank
- 41448
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mâche | mare |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vulgaire de Valerianella locusta, plante potagère de la famille des Caprifoliaceae (caprifoliacées) que l'on mange en salade. | Petit amas d’eau dormante qui se forme naturellement par l’abaissement du sol, ou qu’on produit artificiellement dans les villages et dans les fermes, pour des usages communs ou domestiques. |
Where the eye mixes mâche and mare
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mâche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mare's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mâche and mare
A purely visual mix-up. mâche (\mɑʃ\) and mare (\mɑʁ\) 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 41448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mâche is recorded at frequency rank #29,456, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑʃ\. mare is at rank #11,992, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑʁ\.
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 41448, this pair ranks #233,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mâche vs mare
Shared letters: em. Private to "mâche": châ. Private to "mare": ar.
"mâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mare ← marre · mmare · mrae
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mâche" and "mare" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mâche" or "mare"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mâche" and "mare" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mâche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #233,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mâche" and "mare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mâche vs mane". 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 #233,014 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.