margevsmariageWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,410
“marge” frequency rank
#741
“mariage” frequency rank
4151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marge mariage
Definition Lisière ; bord ; périphérie. Union de deux personnes reconnue de façon officielle par la loi ou les règles en vigueur localement, dans le but de s’unir à vie en formant un couple.

Where the eye mixes marge and mariage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
marge
7 ch
mariage

Why the eye confuses marge with mariage

A purely visual mix-up. marge (\maʁʒ\) and mariage (\ma.ʁjaʒ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marge is recorded at frequency rank #3,410, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁʒ\. mariage is at rank #741, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁjaʒ\.

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 4151, this pair ranks #432,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marge vs mariage

Shared letters: aegmr. Private to "marge": -. Private to "mariage": i.

"marge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mariage" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • margeamrge · magre · mareg · margge · marrge · mmarge · mrage
  • mariageamriage · mairage · maraige · mariaeg · mariagge · marigae · mmariage · mraiage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marge" for "mariage" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\maʁʒ\ versus \ma.ʁjaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "marge" or "mariage"?
"mariage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #741 in our French list, against #3,410 for "marge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mariage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marge" and "mariage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marcy vs marge". 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 #432,328 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