gobevsguéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“gobe” and “gué” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,359
“gobe” frequency rank
#24,618
“gué” frequency rank
71977
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gobe gué
Definition Variante orthographique de gobbe. 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 gobe and gué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
gobe
3 ch
gué

Look-alike desk: gobe vs gué

A purely visual mix-up. gobe (\ɡɔb\) 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 71977, 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\. 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 71977, this pair ranks #45,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gobe vs gué

Shared letters: g. Private to "gobe": beo. Private to "gué": .

"gobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gué" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gobegboe · ggobe · gobbe · goeb · ogbe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gobe" for "gué" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔb\ versus \ɡe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gobe" vs "gué" - which ranks higher?
"gué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,618 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gobe" 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 #45,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gobe" and "gué" 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 #45,632 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