goussevsgoutteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,314
“gousse” frequency rank
#6,398
“goutte” frequency rank
47712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gousse goutte
Definition Fruit sec, dépourvu de cloison, à deux valves, garnies chacune d’une rangée de graines, et avec deux fentes de déhiscence (mot utilisé notamment pour les fruits des légumineuses). Très petite quantité d’un liquide qui se détache avec une forme sphérique.

Where the eye mixes gousse and goutte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gousse and goutte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
gousse
6 ch
goutte

Why the eye confuses gousse with goutte

A purely visual mix-up. gousse (\ɡus\) and goutte (\ɡut\) 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 47712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gousse is recorded at frequency rank #41,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡus\. goutte is at rank #6,398, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡut\.

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 47712, this pair ranks #184,763 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gousse vs goutte

Shared letters: egou. Private to "gousse": s. Private to "goutte": t.

"gousse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "goutte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gousse ← ggousse · gosuse · gouse · guosse · ogusse
  • goutte ← ggoutte · gotute · goute · goutet · guotte · ogutte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gousse" and "goutte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡus\ versus \ɡut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gousse" or "goutte"?
"goutte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,398 in our French list, against #41,314 for "gousse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gousse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goutte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,763 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gousse" and "goutte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gauss vs gousse". 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 #184,763 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