marquervsmarrerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,778
“marquer” frequency rank
#15,677
“marrer” frequency rank
19455
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marquer marrer
Definition Distinguer une chose d’une autre au moyen d’une marque. Labourer la terre avec une marre.

Where the eye mixes marquer and marrer

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

7 ch
marquer
6 ch
marrer

Look-alike desk: marquer vs marrer

A purely visual mix-up. marquer (\maʁ.ke\) and marrer (\ma.ʁe\) 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 19455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marquer is recorded at frequency rank #3,778, classified as averb, pronounced \maʁ.ke\. marrer is at rank #15,677, tagged as averb, pronounced \ma.ʁe\.

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 19455, this pair ranks #373,185 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marquer vs marrer

Shared letters: aemr. Private to "marquer": qu. Private to "marrer": -.

"marquer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "marrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marqueramrquer · maqruer · marqeur · marqquer · marquerr · marqure · marrquer · maruqer
  • marreramrrer · marer · marerr · marrerr · marrre · mmarrer · mrarer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marquer" for "marrer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.ke\ versus \ma.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "marquer" or "marrer" show up more?
"marquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,778 in our French list, against #15,677 for "marrer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #373,185 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marquer" and "marrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mariera vs marrer". 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 #373,185 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