gluevsgoûtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,681
“glue” frequency rank
#1,293
“goût” frequency rank
50974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature glue goût
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de gluer. Celui des cinq sens par lequel on discerne les saveurs.

Where the eye mixes glue and goût

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. glue (CCVV) and goût (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
glue
4 ch
goût

Visual trap between glue and goût

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: glue is \ɡly\ while goût is \ɡu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

glue is recorded at frequency rank #49,681, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡly\. goût is at rank #1,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡu\.

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 50974, this pair ranks #158,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of glue vs goût

Shared letters: g. Private to "glue": elu. Private to "goût": otû.

"glue" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "goût" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • glue ← gglue · gleu · gllue · gule · lgue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "glue" for "goût" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "glue" is a verb and "goût" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "glue" vs "goût" - which ranks higher?
"goût" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,293 in our French list, against #49,681 for "glue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "glue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goût" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "glue" and "goût" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glane 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 #158,542 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