galavsgraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,486
“gala” frequency rank
#44,481
“gra” frequency rank
53967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gala gra
Definition Fête fastueuse et souvent d’un caractère officiel. Acte, action.

Where the eye mixes gala and gra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gala runs 4 letters (CVCV) against gra's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
gala
3 ch
gra

Visual trap between gala and gra

A purely visual mix-up. gala (\ɡa.la\) and gra (\ˈɡrɑː\) 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 53967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gala is recorded at frequency rank #9,486, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡa.la\. gra is at rank #44,481, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɡrɑː\.

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 53967, this pair ranks #137,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gala vs gra

Shared letters: ag. Private to "gala": l. Private to "gra": r.

"gala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gala ← agla · gaal · galla · ggala · glaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gala" and "gra" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡa.la\ versus \ˈɡrɑː\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gala" or "gra"?
"gala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,486 in our French list, against #44,481 for "gra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gala" and "gra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gra vs gx". 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 #137,230 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