guivsguysWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“gui” and “guys” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,579
“gui” frequency rank
#26,041
“guys” frequency rank
58620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gui guys
Definition Mistel Plural des Substantivs guy

Where the eye mixes gui and guys

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gui
4 ch
guys

Look-alike desk: gui vs guys

A purely visual mix-up. gui ([ɡi]) and guys ([ɡaɪz]) 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 58620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gui is recorded at frequency rank #32,579, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡi]. guys is at rank #26,041, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡaɪz].

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 58620, this pair ranks #855,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gui vs guys

Shared letters: gu. Private to "gui": i. Private to "guys": sy.

"gui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "guys" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guysgguys · gusy · guyss · guyys · gyus · ugys

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gui" for "guys" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡi] versus [ɡaɪz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "gui" or "guys" show up more?
"guys" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,041 in our German list, against #32,579 for "gui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #855,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gui" and "guys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gao vs gui". 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 #855,784 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list