marchévsmatchsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“marché” and “matchs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#492
“marché” frequency rank
#1,529
“matchs” frequency rank
2021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marché matchs
Definition Lieu public où s’achètent et se vendent les denrées, les marchandises, les objets d’usage courant. → voir marché-gare et place du marché Pluriel de match.

Where the eye mixes marché and matchs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
marché
6 ch
matchs

Why the eye confuses marché with matchs

A purely visual mix-up. marché (\maʁ.ʃe\) and matchs (\matʃ\) 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 2021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marché is recorded at frequency rank #492, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ʃe\. matchs is at rank #1,529, tagged as anoun, pronounced \matʃ\.

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 2021, this pair ranks #436,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marché vs matchs

Shared letters: achm. Private to "marché": . Private to "matchs": st.

"marché" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "matchs" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matchsamtchs · macths · matcchs · matchhs · matchss · matcsh · mathcs · mattchs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marché" for "matchs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.ʃe\ versus \matʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "marché" or "matchs"?
"marché" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #492 in our French list, against #1,529 for "matchs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "marché" and "matchs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marché" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matchs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marché" and "matchs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marché vs Marcy". 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 #436,922 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