Which to use
“merde” is a noun and “merle” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #481
- “merde” frequency rank
- #22,940
- “merle” frequency rank
- 23421
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merde | merle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Excrément de personne ou d’animal. | Type de coloration de pelage chez le chien. Une robe merle est sombre avec des taches claires peu distinctes qui peuvent être associées à d’autres motifs comme certaines dilutions (couleurs foie) ou une couleur bringée. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set merde and merle apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
merde and merle form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by a single letter - d in “merde” becomes l in “merle” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merde is recorded at frequency rank #481, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛʁd\. merle is at rank #22,940, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛʁl\.
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 23421, this pair ranks #352,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "merde" and "merle" be used interchangeably?
Remembering merde vs merle
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “merde”; for an adjective, it's “merle”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “merde” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable