marquéesvsmasquéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,418
“marquées” frequency rank
#33,345
“masquée” frequency rank
45763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marquées masquée
Definition Féminin pluriel de marqué. Féminin singulier de masqué.

Where the eye mixes marquées and masquée

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

8 ch
marquées
7 ch
masquée

Visual trap between marquées and masquée

A purely visual mix-up. marquées (\maʁ.ke\) and masquée (\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 45763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marquées is recorded at frequency rank #12,418, classified as anadj, pronounced \maʁ.ke\. masquée is at rank #33,345, 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 45763, this pair ranks #200,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marquées vs masquée

Shared letters: aemqsué. Private to "marquées": r. Private to "masquée": -.

"marquées" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC  ·  "masquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marquées" and "masquée" be used interchangeably?
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.
Frequency check: "marquées" vs "masquée" - which ranks higher?
"marquées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,418 in our French list, against #33,345 for "masquée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marquées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "masquée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marquées" and "masquée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "masquée vs moquée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #200,223 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