gardezvsgareWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gardez is a verb, gare is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gardez” is a verb and “gare” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,169
“gardez” frequency rank
#1,953
“gare” frequency rank
11122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gardez gare
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de garder. Tronçon de voie fluviale aménagée pour faciliter la circulation et la protection des navires.

Where the eye mixes gardez and gare

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
gardez
4 ch
gare

Look-alike desk: gardez vs gare

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gardez is \ɡaʁ.de\ while gare is \ɡaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gardez is recorded at frequency rank #9,169, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡaʁ.de\. gare is at rank #1,953, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡaʁ\.

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 11122, this pair ranks #410,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gardez vs gare

Shared letters: aegr. Private to "gardez": dz. Private to "gare": -.

"gardez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "gare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gardezagrdez · gadrez · garddez · gardezz · gardze · garedz · garrdez · ggardez
  • gareagre · gaer · garre · ggare · grae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gardez" for "gare" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gardez" is a verb and "gare" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "gardez" or "gare" show up more?
"gare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,953 in our French list, against #9,169 for "gardez". 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 "gardez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gardez" and "gare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gare vs glue". 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 #410,399 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