Which to use
“manquant” is an adjective and “marquait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,617
- “manquant” frequency rank
- #24,669
- “marquait” frequency rank
- 37286
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | manquant | marquait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est en moins, qui n’est pas là où il devrait se trouver. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de marquer. |
Where the eye mixes manquant and marquait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: manquant vs marquait
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manquant is \mɑ̃.kɑ̃\ while marquait is \maʁ.kɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
manquant is recorded at frequency rank #12,617, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɑ̃\. 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 37286, this pair ranks #263,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of manquant vs marquait
Shared letters: amqtu. Private to "manquant": n. Private to "marquait": ir.
"manquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC · "marquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "manquant" and "marquait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "manquant" 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 "manquant" 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 #263,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "manquant" and "marquait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marquait vs masquant". 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 #263,540 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.