Which to use
“manquais” and “marquait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,949
- “manquais” frequency rank
- #24,669
- “marquait” frequency rank
- 61618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manquais | marquait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de manquer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de marquer. |
Where the eye mixes manquais and marquait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. manquais and marquait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: manquais vs marquait
A purely visual mix-up. manquais (\mɑ̃.kɛ\) and marquait (\maʁ.kɛ\) 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 61618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manquais is recorded at frequency rank #36,949, classified as averb, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɛ\. marquait is at rank #24,669, tagged as averb, pronounced \maʁ.kɛ\.
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 61618, this pair ranks #91,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of manquais vs marquait
Shared letters: aimqu. Private to "manquais": ns. Private to "marquait": rt.
"manquais" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC · "marquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "manquais" for "marquait" ever safe?
Frequency check: "manquais" vs "marquait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "manquais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marquait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #91,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manquais" and "marquait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manqua vs manquais". 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 #91,312 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.