Which to use
“maître” is a noun and “malgré” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #946
- “maître” frequency rank
- #556
- “malgré” frequency rank
- 1502
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maître | malgré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui exerce son autorité. | Contre le vouloir de quelqu’un, contre le gré de. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set maître and malgré apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maître is \mɛtʁ\ while malgré is \mal.ɡʁe\. 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 preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maître is recorded at frequency rank #946, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. 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 1502, this pair ranks #437,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maître vs malgré
Shared letters: amr. Private to "maître": etî. Private to "malgré": glé.
"maître" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "malgré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "maître" and "malgré" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "maître" or "malgré"?
Remembering maître vs malgré
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “maître”; for a preposition, it's “malgré”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “maître” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable