goesvsgotWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,107
“goes” frequency rank
#9,489
“got” frequency rank
43596
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goes got
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du présent indicatif de go. Passé du verbe get.

Where the eye mixes goes and got

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
goes
3 ch
got

Look-alike desk: goes vs got

A purely visual mix-up. goes (\ˈɡoʊz\) and got (\ɡɒt\) 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 43596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goes is recorded at frequency rank #34,107, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈɡoʊz\. got is at rank #9,489, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡɒt\.

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 43596, this pair ranks #216,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of goes vs got

Shared letters: go. Private to "goes": es. Private to "got": t.

"goes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "got" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • goesgeos · ggoes · goess · oges

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "goes" and "got" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɡoʊz\ versus \ɡɒt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "goes" or "got" show up more?
"got" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,489 in our French list, against #34,107 for "goes". 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 "goes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "got" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goes" and "got" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gods vs goes". 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 #216,857 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