remarquervsremorquerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,285
“remarquer” frequency rank
#45,835
“remorquer” frequency rank
49120
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature remarquer remorquer
Definition Marquer à nouveau. Traîner derrière soi, en parlant d'un bateau, des wagons, etc.

Where the eye mixes remarquer and remorquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
remarquer
9 ch
remorquer

Why the eye confuses remarquer with remorquer

A purely visual mix-up. remarquer (\ʁə.maʁ.ke\) and remorquer (\ʁə.mɔʁ.ke\) 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 a single letter - a in “remarquer” becomes o in “remorquer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

remarquer is recorded at frequency rank #3,285, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.maʁ.ke\. remorquer is at rank #45,835, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.mɔʁ.ke\.

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 49120, this pair ranks #173,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of remarquer vs remorquer

Shared letters: emqru. Private to "remarquer": a. Private to "remorquer": o.

"remarquer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC  ·  "remorquer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • remarquerermarquer · reamrquer · remaqruer · remarqeur · remarqquer · remarquerr · remarqure · remarrquer
  • remorquerermorquer · remmorquer · remoqruer · remorqeur · remorqquer · remorquerr · remorqure · remorrquer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "remarquer" for "remorquer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.maʁ.ke\ versus \ʁə.mɔʁ.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "remarquer" or "remorquer"?
"remarquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,285 in our French list, against #45,835 for "remorquer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "remarquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "remorquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "remarquer" and "remorquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "remorquer vs rétorqué". 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 #173,329 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