gaisvsgrosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,874
“gais” frequency rank
#315
“gros” frequency rank
24189
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gais gros
Definition Masculin pluriel de gai. Qui a beaucoup de circonférence ou de volume.

Where the eye mixes gais and gros

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

4 ch
gais
4 ch
gros

Why the eye confuses gais with gros

A purely visual mix-up. gais (\ɡe\) and gros (\ɡʁo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gais is recorded at frequency rank #23,874, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡe\. gros is at rank #315, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁo\.

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 24189, this pair ranks #348,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gais vs gros

Shared letters: gs. Private to "gais": ai. Private to "gros": or.

"gais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "gros" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gaisgaiss · gasi · ggais · gias
  • grosggros · gors · grros · grso · rgos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gais" and "gros" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡe\ versus \ɡʁo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gais" vs "gros" - which ranks higher?
"gros" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #315 in our French list, against #23,874 for "gais". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gais" and "gros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gais vs gods". 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 #348,046 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