Which to use
“manche” and “marché” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,085
- “manche” frequency rank
- #492
- “marché” frequency rank
- 3577
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manche | marché |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie du vêtement, de forme et de dimension variable, dans laquelle on passe le bras et qui le recouvre en totalité ou en partie. | Lieu public où s’achètent et se vendent les denrées, les marchandises, les objets d’usage courant. → voir marché-gare et place du marché |
Where the eye mixes manche and marché
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses manche with marché
A purely visual mix-up. manche (\mɑ̃ʃ\) and marché (\maʁ.ʃe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manche is recorded at frequency rank #3,085, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃ʃ\. marché is at rank #492, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ʃe\.
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 3577, this pair ranks #433,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of manche vs marché
Shared letters: achm. Private to "manche": en. Private to "marché": ré.
"manche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "marché" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- manche ← amnche · macnhe · mancche · manceh · manchhe · manhce · mannche · mmanche
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "manche" and "marché" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "manche" or "marché" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "manche" and "marché" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "manche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marché" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manche" and "marché" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manche vs mane". 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 #433,697 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.