Which to use
“marais” and “marnes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,846
- “marais” frequency rank
- #41,401
- “marnes” frequency rank
- 48247
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marais | marnes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue de terrain périodiquement inondée ou continuellement humide, recouverte d’une nappe d’eau peu profonde. | Pluriel de marne. |
Where the eye mixes marais and marnes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marais (CVCVVC) and marnes (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses marais with marnes
A purely visual mix-up. marais (\ma.ʁɛ\) and marnes (\maʁn\) 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 48247, 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\. marnes is at rank #41,401, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁn\.
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 48247, this pair ranks #180,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marais vs marnes
Shared letters: amrs. Private to "marais": i. Private to "marnes": en.
"marais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "marnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marais" for "marnes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "marais" vs "marnes" - 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 "marnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #180,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marais" and "marnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mane vs marnes". 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 #180,437 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.