mâchervsmarchezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mâcher” and “marchez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,876
“mâcher” frequency rank
#29,037
“marchez” frequency rank
58913
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mâcher marchez
Definition Broyer un aliment ou un objet à l’aide des dents et de la mâchoire. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de marcher.

Where the eye mixes mâcher and marchez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mâcher runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against marchez's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mâcher
7 ch
marchez

Visual trap between mâcher and marchez

A purely visual mix-up. mâcher (\ma.ʃe\) and marchez (\maʁ.ʃe\) 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 58913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mâcher is recorded at frequency rank #29,876, classified as averb, pronounced \ma.ʃe\. marchez is at rank #29,037, tagged as averb, pronounced \maʁ.ʃe\.

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 58913, this pair ranks #106,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mâcher vs marchez

Shared letters: cehmr. Private to "mâcher": â. Private to "marchez": az.

"mâcher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "marchez" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marchezamrchez · macrhez · marcchez · marcehz · marchezz · marchhez · marchze · marhcez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mâcher" for "marchez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʃe\ versus \maʁ.ʃe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mâcher" vs "marchez" - which ranks higher?
"marchez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,037 in our French list, against #29,876 for "mâcher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mâcher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marchez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mâcher" and "marchez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mâcher vs mahé". 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 #106,183 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