Which to use
“marais” and “marquis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,846
- “marais” frequency rank
- #5,582
- “marquis” frequency rank
- 12428
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marais | marquis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue de terrain périodiquement inondée ou continuellement humide, recouverte d’une nappe d’eau peu profonde. | Seigneur préposé à la garde des marches, des frontières d’un état. |
Where the eye mixes marais and marquis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. marais runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against marquis's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: marais vs marquis
A purely visual mix-up. marais (\ma.ʁɛ\) and marquis (\maʁ.ki\) 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 12428, 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\. marquis is at rank #5,582, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ki\.
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 12428, this pair ranks #405,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marais vs marquis
Shared letters: aimrs. Private to "marais": -. Private to "marquis": qu.
"marais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "marquis" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "marais" and "marquis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "marais" vs "marquis" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "marais" and "marquis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marquis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #405,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marais" and "marquis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marais vs mercis". 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 #405,312 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.