Which to use
“marais” and “mares” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,846
- “marais” frequency rank
- #30,698
- “mares” frequency rank
- 37544
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marais | mares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue de terrain périodiquement inondée ou continuellement humide, recouverte d’une nappe d’eau peu profonde. | Pluriel de mare. |
Where the eye mixes marais and mares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marais runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against mares's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses marais with mares
A purely visual mix-up. marais (\ma.ʁɛ\) and mares (\maʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37544, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marais is recorded at frequency rank #6,846, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁɛ\. mares is at rank #30,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ\.
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 37544, this pair ranks #261,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marais vs mares
Shared letters: amrs. Private to "marais": i. Private to "mares": e.
"marais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "mares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marais" and "mares" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "marais" or "mares"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "marais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #261,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marais" and "mares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macros vs mares". 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 #261,743 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.