malgré vs marbre, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#556
“malgré” frequency rank: #6,109
“marbre” frequency rank: 6665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	malgré	marbre
Definition	Contre le vouloir de quelqu’un, contre le gré de.	Toute pierre susceptible d'être polie

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch

malgré

6 ch

marbre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malgré is \mal.ɡʁe\ while marbre is \maʁbʁ\. 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 (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malgré is recorded at frequency rank #556, classified as aprep, pronounced \mal.ɡʁe\. marbre is at rank #6,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁbʁ\.

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 6665, this pair ranks #425,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of malgré vs marbre

Shared letters: amr. Private to "malgré": glé. Private to "marbre": be.

"malgré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "marbre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

marbre ← amrbre · mabrre · marbbre · marber · marbrre · marrbe · marrbre · mmarbre

Frequency comparison

malgré#556

marbre#6,109

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malgré" and "marbre" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malgré" is a preposition and "marbre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "malgré" or "marbre"?

"malgré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #556 in our French list, against #6,109 for "marbre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering malgré vs marbre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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