mariagevsmariagesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#741
“mariage” frequency rank
#6,317
“mariages” frequency rank
7058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mariage mariages
Definition 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. Pluriel de mariage.

Same sound, different letters: mariage vs mariages

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. mariage runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against mariages's 8 (CVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mariage
8 ch
mariages

Same sound, different spelling - mariage / mariages

This is the hard kind. mariage and mariages are pronounced identically (\ma.ʁjaʒ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mariage” sits inside “mariages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mariage is recorded at frequency rank #741, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.ʁjaʒ\. mariages is at rank #6,317, 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 7058, this pair ranks #424,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mariage vs mariages

Shared letters: aegimr. Private to "mariage": -. Private to "mariages": s.

"mariage" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "mariages" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mariageamriage · mairage · maraige · mariaeg · mariagge · marigae · mmariage · mraiage
  • mariagesamriages · mairages · maraiges · mariaegs · mariagess · mariagges · mariagse · marigaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mariage" and "mariages" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ma.ʁjaʒ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "mariage" vs "mariages" - which ranks higher?
"mariage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #741 in our French list, against #6,317 for "mariages". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"mariage" and "mariages" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mariage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mariages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #424,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mariage" and "mariages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mariages vs mirages". 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 #424,396 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