goûtevsguéWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,632
“goûte” frequency rank
#24,618
“gué” frequency rank
41250
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goûte gué
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de goûter. 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 goûte and gué

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

5 ch
goûte
3 ch
gué

Why the eye confuses goûte with gué

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: goûte is \ɡut\ while gué is \ɡe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goûte is recorded at frequency rank #16,632, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡut\. 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 41250, this pair ranks #234,468 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of goûte vs gué

Shared letters: g. Private to "goûte": eotû. Private to "gué": .

"goûte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "gué" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "goûte" and "gué" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "goûte" is a verb and "gué" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "goûte" vs "gué" - which ranks higher?
"goûte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,632 in our French list, against #24,618 for "gué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "goûte" 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 #234,468 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goûte" and "gué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #234,468 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