Which to use
“mardi” and “mare” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,568
- “mardi” frequency rank
- #11,992
- “mare” frequency rank
- 13560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mardi | mare |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième jour de la semaine, qui suit le lundi et précède le mercredi. | Petit amas d’eau dormante qui se forme naturellement par l’abaissement du sol, ou qu’on produit artificiellement dans les villages et dans les fermes, pour des usages communs ou domestiques. |
Where the eye mixes mardi and mare
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mardi with mare
A purely visual mix-up. mardi (\maʁ.di\) and mare (\mɑʁ\) 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 13560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mardi is recorded at frequency rank #1,568, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.di\. mare is at rank #11,992, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑʁ\.
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 13560, this pair ranks #400,498 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mardi vs mare
Shared letters: amr. Private to "mardi": di. Private to "mare": e.
"mardi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mardi" for "mare" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mardi" or "mare"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mardi" and "mare" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mardi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,498 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mardi" and "mare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maid vs mare". 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 #400,498 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.