marqué vs masqués, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,046
“marqué” frequency rank: #25,040
“masqués” frequency rank: 27086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	marqué	masqués
Definition	Qui frappe la vue, l’attention, qui se fait remarquer, apparent, visible.	Masculin pluriel de masqué.

Where the eye mixes marqué and masqués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch

marqué

7 ch

masqués

Visual trap between marqué and masqués

A purely visual mix-up. marqué (\maʁ.ke\) and masqués (\mas.ke\) 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 27086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marqué is recorded at frequency rank #2,046, classified as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.ke\. masqués is at rank #25,040, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mas.ke\.

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 27086, this pair ranks #331,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marqué vs masqués

Shared letters: amqué. Private to "marqué": r. Private to "masqués": s.

"marqué" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "masqués" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "marqué" and "masqués" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (\maʁ.ke\ versus \mas.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "marqué" or "masqués"?

"marqué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,046 in our French list, against #25,040 for "masqués". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "marqué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "masqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #331,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"marqué" and "masqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquent vs masqués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #331,160 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.