Which to use
“marde” and “marsh” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,043
- “marde” frequency rank
- #28,247
- “marsh” frequency rank
- 64290
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marde | marsh |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Merde. | Marais, marécage. |
Where the eye mixes marde and marsh
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. marde (CVCCV) and marsh (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: marde vs marsh
A purely visual mix-up. marde (\maʁd\) and marsh (\mɑɹʃ\) 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 64290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marde is recorded at frequency rank #36,043, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁd\. marsh is at rank #28,247, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑɹʃ\.
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 64290, this pair ranks #77,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of marde vs marsh
Shared letters: amr. Private to "marde": de. Private to "marsh": hs.
"marde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "marsh" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "marde" and "marsh" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "marde" or "marsh"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "marde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marsh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marde" and "marsh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs marde". 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 #77,773 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.