marshvsmasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,247
“marsh” frequency rank
#9,694
“mas” frequency rank
37941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marsh mas
Definition Marais, marécage. Ferme dans le midi de la France.

Where the eye mixes marsh and mas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
marsh
3 ch
mas

Look-alike desk: marsh vs mas

A purely visual mix-up. marsh (\mɑɹʃ\) and mas (\mas\) 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 37941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marsh is recorded at frequency rank #28,247, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑɹʃ\. mas is at rank #9,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mas\.

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 37941, this pair ranks #258,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marsh vs mas

Shared letters: ams. Private to "marsh": hr. Private to "mas": -.

"marsh" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marshamrsh · marhs · marrsh · marshh · marssh · masrh · mmarsh · mrash

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marsh" for "mas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɑɹʃ\ versus \mas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marsh" vs "mas" - which ranks higher?
"mas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,694 in our French list, against #28,247 for "marsh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "marsh" and "mas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marsh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marsh" and "mas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marcy vs marsh". 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 #258,867 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