Which to use
“maires” is a noun and “marines” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,362
- “maires” frequency rank
- #7,861
- “marines” frequency rank
- 13223
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maires | marines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de maire. | Féminin pluriel de marin. |
Where the eye mixes maires and marines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against marines's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maires and marines
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maires is \mɛʁ\ while marines is \ma.ʁin\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13223, 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\. marines is at rank #7,861, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʁin\.
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 13223, this pair ranks #401,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maires vs marines
Shared letters: aeimrs. Private to "maires": -. Private to "marines": n.
"maires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "marines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maires" and "marines" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "maires" or "marines"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maires" and "marines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marines vs marini". 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 #401,909 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.