Which to use
“gobe” and “grue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,359
- “gobe” frequency rank
- #16,633
- “grue” frequency rank
- 63992
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gobe | grue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante orthographique de gobbe. | Gros oiseau voyageur, de l’ordre des Échassiers, qui vole fort haut et par bandes. |
Where the eye mixes gobe and grue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gobe (CVCV) and grue (CCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses gobe with grue
A purely visual mix-up. gobe (\ɡɔb\) and grue (\ɡʁy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63992, 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\. grue is at rank #16,633, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁy\.
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 63992, this pair ranks #79,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gobe vs grue
Shared letters: eg. Private to "gobe": bo. Private to "grue": ru.
"gobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "grue" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gobe" and "grue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "gobe" vs "grue" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "gobe" and "grue" 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 "grue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gobe" and "grue" 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 #79,212 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.