Which to use
“marais” and “maris” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,846
- “marais” frequency rank
- #13,002
- “maris” frequency rank
- 19848
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marais | maris |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue de terrain périodiquement inondée ou continuellement humide, recouverte d’une nappe d’eau peu profonde. | Pluriel de mari. |
Where the eye mixes marais and maris
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between marais and maris
A purely visual mix-up. marais (\ma.ʁɛ\) and maris (\ma.ʁi\) 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 19848, 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\. maris is at rank #13,002, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁi\.
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 19848, this pair ranks #371,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marais vs maris
Shared letters: aimrs. Private to "marais": -. Private to "maris": -.
"marais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "maris" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marais" and "maris" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "marais" vs "maris" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "marais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #371,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marais" and "maris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs maris". 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 #371,237 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.