marchésvsmarnesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,528
“marchés” frequency rank
#41,401
“marnes” frequency rank
43929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marchés marnes
Definition Pluriel de marché. Pluriel de marne.

Where the eye mixes marchés and marnes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. marchés runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against marnes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
marchés
6 ch
marnes

Look-alike desk: marchés vs marnes

A purely visual mix-up. marchés (\maʁ.ʃe\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marchés is recorded at frequency rank #2,528, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ʃe\. 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 43929, this pair ranks #214,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marchés vs marnes

Shared letters: amrs. Private to "marchés": ché. Private to "marnes": en.

"marchés" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "marnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marnes ← amrnes · manres · marens · marness · marnnes · marnse · marrnes · mmarnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "marchés" and "marnes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.ʃe\ versus \maʁn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marchés" vs "marnes" - which ranks higher?
"marchés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,528 in our French list, against #41,401 for "marnes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marchés" 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 #214,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marchés" 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 #214,288 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