Which to use
“manches” and “marchés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,580
- “manches” frequency rank
- #2,528
- “marchés” frequency rank
- 8108
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manches | marchés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de manche. | Pluriel de marché. |
Where the eye mixes manches and marchés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. manches and marchés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between manches and marchés
A purely visual mix-up. manches (\mɑ̃ʃ\) and marchés (\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 8108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manches is recorded at frequency rank #5,580, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃ʃ\. marchés is at rank #2,528, 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 8108, this pair ranks #421,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of manches vs marchés
Shared letters: achms. Private to "manches": en. Private to "marchés": ré.
"manches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "marchés" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- manches ← amnches · macnhes · mancches · mancehs · manchess · manchhes · manchse · manhces
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "manches" for "marchés" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "manches" or "marchés" show up more?
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 "manches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marchés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #421,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manches" and "marchés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manches vs manies". 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 #421,106 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.