marquantvsmoquantTell them apart

Quick tell: marquant is a adjective, moquant is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“marquant” is an adjective and “moquant” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,036
“marquant” frequency rank
#36,055
“moquant” frequency rank
45091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marquant moquant
Definition Qui se fait remarquer par des caractères particuliers, en parlant des personnes ou des choses. Participe présent de moquer.

Where the eye mixes marquant and moquant

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

8 ch
marquant
7 ch
moquant

Look-alike desk: marquant vs moquant

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marquant is \maʁ.kɑ̃\ while moquant is \mɔ.kɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45091, 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\. moquant is at rank #36,055, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.kɑ̃\.

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 45091, this pair ranks #205,471 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marquant vs moquant

Shared letters: amnqtu. Private to "marquant": r. Private to "moquant": o.

"marquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC  ·  "moquant" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marquantamrquant · maqruant · marqaunt · marqquant · marquannt · marquantt · marquatn · marqunat
  • moquantmmoquant · moqaunt · moqquant · moquannt · moquantt · moquatn · moqunat · mouqant

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marquant" and "moquant" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marquant" is an adjective and "moquant" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "marquant" vs "moquant" - which ranks higher?
"marquant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,036 in our French list, against #36,055 for "moquant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marquant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moquant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,471 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marquant" and "moquant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquant vs moquant". 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 #205,471 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