magievsmalgréWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: magie is a noun, malgré is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“magie” is a noun and “malgré” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,622
“magie” frequency rank
#556
“malgré” frequency rank
4178
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magie malgré
Definition Art prétendu auquel on attribue le pouvoir d’opérer, par des moyens occultes, des effets surprenants et merveilleux. Contre le vouloir de quelqu’un, contre le gré de.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set magie and malgré apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
magie
6 ch
malgré

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: magie is \ma.ʒi\ while malgré is \mal.ɡʁe\. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magie is recorded at frequency rank #3,622, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʒi\. malgré is at rank #556, tagged as aprep, pronounced \mal.ɡʁe\.

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 4178, this pair ranks #432,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of magie vs malgré

Shared letters: agm. Private to "magie": ei. Private to "malgré": lré.

"magie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "malgré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magieamgie · magei · maige · mgaie · mmagie

Frequency comparison

magie#3,622
malgré#556

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "magie" and "malgré" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "magie" is a noun and "malgré" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "magie" or "malgré"?
"malgré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #556 in our French list, against #3,622 for "magie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering magie vs malgré

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “magie”; for a preposition, it's “malgré”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “magie” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list