marquavsmarquaitConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,434
“marqua” frequency rank
#24,669
“marquait” frequency rank
54103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marqua marquait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de marquer. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de marquer.

Where the eye mixes marqua and marquait

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

6 ch
marqua
8 ch
marquait

Visual trap between marqua and marquait

A purely visual mix-up. marqua (\maʁ.ka\) and marquait (\maʁ.kɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “marqua” sits inside “marquait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marqua is recorded at frequency rank #29,434, classified as averb, pronounced \maʁ.ka\. marquait is at rank #24,669, tagged as averb, pronounced \maʁ.kɛ\.

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 54103, this pair ranks #136,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marqua vs marquait

Shared letters: amqru. Private to "marqua": -. Private to "marquait": it.

"marqua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "marquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marquaamrqua · maqrua · marqau · marqqua · marrqua · maruqa · mmarqua · mraqua
  • marquaitamrquait · maqruait · marqauit · marqquait · marquaitt · marquati · marquiat · marrquait

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "marqua" and "marquait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.ka\ versus \maʁ.kɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "marqua" or "marquait" show up more?
"marquait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,669 in our French list, against #29,434 for "marqua". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marqua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marquait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marqua" and "marquait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marquait vs masquant". 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 #136,278 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