mariagevsmarquageWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#741
“mariage” frequency rank
#16,943
“marquage” frequency rank
17684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mariage marquage
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. Fait de marquer, ou résultat de cette action.

Where the eye mixes mariage and marquage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mariage runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against marquage's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mariage
8 ch
marquage

Look-alike desk: mariage vs marquage

A purely visual mix-up. mariage (\ma.ʁjaʒ\) and marquage (\maʁ.kaʒ\) 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 17684, 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\. marquage is at rank #16,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.kaʒ\.

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 17684, this pair ranks #381,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mariage vs marquage

Shared letters: aegmr. Private to "mariage": i. Private to "marquage": qu.

"mariage" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "marquage" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mariageamriage · mairage · maraige · mariaeg · mariagge · marigae · mmariage · mraiage
  • marquageamrquage · maqruage · marqauge · marqquage · marquaeg · marquagge · marqugae · marrquage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mariage" for "marquage" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.ʁjaʒ\ versus \maʁ.kaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mariage" vs "marquage" - which ranks higher?
"mariage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #741 in our French list, against #16,943 for "marquage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mariage" and "marquage" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mariage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marquage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #381,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mariage" and "marquage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marquage vs matraquage". 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 #381,975 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