gobevsgoesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,359
“gobe” frequency rank
#34,107
“goes” frequency rank
81466
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gobe goes
Definition Variante orthographique de gobbe. Troisième personne du singulier du présent indicatif de go.

Where the eye mixes gobe and goes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gobe (CVCV) and goes (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
gobe
4 ch
goes

Why the eye confuses gobe with goes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gobe is \ɡɔb\ while goes is \ˈɡoʊz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gobe is recorded at frequency rank #47,359, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔb\. goes is at rank #34,107, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈɡoʊz\.

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 81466, this pair ranks #18,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gobe vs goes

Shared letters: ego. Private to "gobe": b. Private to "goes": s.

"gobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "goes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gobe ← gboe · ggobe · gobbe · goeb · ogbe
  • goes ← geos · ggoes · goess · oges

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gobe" and "goes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gobe" is a noun and "goes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "gobe" or "goes" show up more?
"goes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,107 in our French list, against #47,359 for "gobe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "gobe" and "goes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gobe" and "goes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gobe". 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 #18,681 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