Which to use
“maires” is a noun and “mariés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,362
- “maires” frequency rank
- #7,593
- “mariés” frequency rank
- 12955
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maires | mariés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de maire. | Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif marié. |
Where the eye mixes maires and mariés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. maires (CVVCVC) and mariés (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses maires with mariés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maires is \mɛʁ\ while mariés is \ma.ʁje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12955, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maires is recorded at frequency rank #5,362, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁ\. mariés is at rank #7,593, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʁje\.
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 12955, this pair ranks #403,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maires vs mariés
Shared letters: aimrs. Private to "maires": e. Private to "mariés": é.
"maires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "mariés" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- maires ← amires · maiers · mairess · mairres · mairse · maries · miares · mmaires
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maires" and "mariés" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "maires" or "mariés" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maires" and "mariés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mariés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maires" and "mariés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mariera vs mariés". 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 #403,040 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.