marquantvsmarrantTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,036
“marquant” frequency rank
#3,275
“marrant” frequency rank
12311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marquant marrant
Definition Qui se fait remarquer par des caractères particuliers, en parlant des personnes ou des choses. Comique ; drôle ; ludique.

Where the eye mixes marquant and marrant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
marquant
7 ch
marrant

Why the eye confuses marquant with marrant

A purely visual mix-up. marquant (\maʁ.kɑ̃\) and marrant (\ma.ʁɑ̃\) 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 12311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marquant is recorded at frequency rank #9,036, classified as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.kɑ̃\. marrant is at rank #3,275, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.ʁɑ̃\.

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 12311, this pair ranks #405,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marquant vs marrant

Shared letters: amnrt. Private to "marquant": qu. Private to "marrant": -.

"marquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC  ·  "marrant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marquantamrquant · maqruant · marqaunt · marqquant · marquannt · marquantt · marquatn · marqunat
  • marrantamrrant · marant · mararnt · marrannt · marrantt · marratn · marrnat · mmarrant

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marquant" for "marrant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.kɑ̃\ versus \ma.ʁɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marquant" vs "marrant" - which ranks higher?
"marrant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,275 in our French list, against #9,036 for "marquant". 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 "marquant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marrant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marquant" and "marrant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marquant 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 #405,782 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