Which to use
“maigre” is an adjective and “malgré” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,733
- “maigre” frequency rank
- #556
- “malgré” frequency rank
- 9289
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maigre | malgré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui contient peu ou pas de graisse ou de liant. | Contre le vouloir de quelqu’un, contre le gré de. |
Where the eye mixes maigre and malgré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses maigre with malgré
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maigre is \mɛɡʁ\ while malgré is \mal.ɡʁe\. 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 (adjective vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maigre is recorded at frequency rank #8,733, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛɡʁ\. 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 9289, this pair ranks #417,177 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maigre vs malgré
Shared letters: agmr. Private to "maigre": ei. Private to "malgré": lé.
"maigre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "malgré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- maigre ← amigre · magire · maiger · maiggre · maigrre · mairge · miagre · mmaigre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maigre" for "malgré" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maigre" or "malgré" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malgré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,177 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maigre" and "malgré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magret vs maigre". 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 #417,177 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.