marquesvsmarquisesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,838
“marques” frequency rank
#44,572
“marquises” frequency rank
47410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marques marquises
Definition Pluriel de marque. Pluriel de marquise.

Where the eye mixes marques and marquises

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
marques
9 ch
marquises

Why the eye confuses marques with marquises

A purely visual mix-up. marques (\maʁk\) and marquises (\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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47410, 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\. marquises is at rank #44,572, 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 47410, this pair ranks #187,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marques vs marquises

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

"marques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "marquises" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marquesamrques · maqrues · marqeus · marqques · marquess · marquse · marrques · maruqes
  • marquisesamrquises · maqruises · marqiuses · marqquises · marquiess · marquisess · marquisses · marqusies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marques" for "marquises" ever safe?
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 "marquises" - which ranks higher?
"marques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,838 in our French list, against #44,572 for "marquises". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marquises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marques" and "marquises" 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 #187,180 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