Which to use
“marde” and “mode” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,043
- “marde” frequency rank
- #585
- “mode” frequency rank
- 36628
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marde | mode |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Merde. | Manière de voir ou d’agir ; fantaisie. |
Where the eye mixes marde and mode
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between marde and mode
A purely visual mix-up. marde (\maʁd\) and mode (\mɔd\) 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 36628, 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\. mode is at rank #585, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔd\.
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 36628, this pair ranks #268,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marde vs mode
Shared letters: dem. Private to "marde": ar. Private to "mode": o.
"marde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "marde" for "mode" ever safe?
Frequency check: "marde" vs "mode" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "mode" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #268,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marde" and "mode" 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 #268,264 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.