marchandevsmarchandesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: marchande is a noun, marchandes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“marchande” is a noun and “marchandes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,618
“marchande” frequency rank
#37,422
“marchandes” frequency rank
50040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marchande marchandes
Definition Femme qui exerce une activité de marchand. Féminin pluriel de marchand.

Same sound, different letters: marchande vs marchandes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. marchande runs 9 letters (CVCCCVCCV) against marchandes's 10 (CVCCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
marchande
10 ch
marchandes

Ear matches; page differs - marchande and marchandes

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: marchande and marchandes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \maʁ.ʃɑ̃d\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “marchande” sits inside “marchandes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marchande is recorded at frequency rank #12,618, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ʃɑ̃d\. marchandes is at rank #37,422, tagged as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.ʃɑ̃d\.

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 50040, this pair ranks #165,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marchande vs marchandes

Shared letters: acdehmnr. Private to "marchande": -. Private to "marchandes": s.

"marchande" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCCV  ·  "marchandes" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marchandeamrchande · macrhande · marcahnde · marcchande · marchadne · marchandde · marchaned · marchannde
  • marchandesamrchandes · macrhandes · marcahndes · marcchandes · marchadnes · marchanddes · marchandess · marchandse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marchande" for "marchandes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marchande" is a noun and "marchandes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "marchande" or "marchandes" show up more?
"marchande" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,618 in our French list, against #37,422 for "marchandes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "marchande" / "marchandes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marchande" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marchandes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marchande" and "marchandes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marchande vs Marmande". 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 #165,754 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list