marquesvsmarquiseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,838
“marques” frequency rank
#16,412
“marquise” frequency rank
19250
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marques marquise
Definition Pluriel de marque. Épouse ou veuve d’un marquis.

Where the eye mixes marques and marquise

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

7 ch
marques
8 ch
marquise

Visual trap between marques and marquise

A purely visual mix-up. marques (\maʁk\) and marquise (\maʁ.kiz\) 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 19250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marques is recorded at frequency rank #2,838, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁk\. marquise is at rank #16,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.kiz\.

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 19250, this pair ranks #374,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marques vs marquise

Shared letters: aemqrsu. Private to "marques": -. Private to "marquise": i.

"marques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "marquise" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marques ← amrques · maqrues · marqeus · marqques · marquess · marquse · marrques · maruqes
  • marquise ← amrquise · maqruise · marqiuse · marqquise · marquies · marquisse · marqusie · marrquise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marques" and "marquise" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\maʁk\ versus \maʁ.kiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marques" vs "marquise" - which ranks higher?
"marques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,838 in our French list, against #16,412 for "marquise". 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 "marques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marquise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #374,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marques" and "marquise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marquise vs marquises". 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 #374,195 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