Which to use
“gate” and “gué” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,298
- “gate” frequency rank
- #24,618
- “gué” frequency rank
- 43916
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gate | gué |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de grille, électrode de commande des dispositifs à effet de champ. Cette électrode joue un effet analogue à celle de la grille d'un tube électronique, qui est de restreindre en fonction du potentiel qui lui est appliqué la zone dans laquelle les porteurs de charge peuvent circuler. | Endroit d’une rivière, d’un fleuve où l’eau est assez basse et le fond assez ferme pour qu’on puisse traverser à pied. |
Where the eye mixes gate and gué
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between gate and gué
A purely visual mix-up. gate (\ɡɛt\) and gué (\ɡe\) 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 43916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gate is recorded at frequency rank #19,298, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɛt\. gué is at rank #24,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡe\.
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 43916, this pair ranks #214,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gate vs gué
Shared letters: g. Private to "gate": aet. Private to "gué": ué.
"gate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "gué" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- gate ← agte · gaet · gatte · ggate · gtae
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gate" for "gué" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "gate" or "gué" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "gate" and "gué" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #214,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gate" and "gué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gué". 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 #214,372 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.