gesvsghWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ges is a pronoun, gh is a typographic variant, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ges” is a pronoun and “gh” is a typographic variant - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,144
“ges” frequency rank
#46,786
“gh” frequency rank
63930
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ges gh
Definition Contraction de ge les (« je les »). Orthographe par contrainte typographique par système h de ĝ.

Letter map: ges vs gh

Shared letters muted; letters that set ges and gh apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ges
2 ch
gh

Role in the sentence - ges and gh

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ges is apronoun and ghatypographic variant. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ges is recorded at frequency rank #17,144, classified as apron. gh is at rank #46,786, tagged as atypographic variant, pronounced \d͡ʒo\.

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 63930, this pair ranks #79,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ges vs gh

Shared letters: g. Private to "ges": es. Private to "gh": h.

"ges" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "gh" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ges" and "gh" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ges" is a pronoun and "gh" a typographic variant, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ges" or "gh"?
"ges" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,144 in our French list, against #46,786 for "gh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "ges" vs "gh" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ges" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ges" and "gh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gh vs gx". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #79,481 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