goûtevsgutWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,632
“goûte” frequency rank
#45,089
“gut” frequency rank
61721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goûte gut
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de goûter. Rituel chamanique consistant à communiquer avec les esprits.

Where the eye mixes goûte and gut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. goûte runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against gut's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
goûte
3 ch
gut

Visual trap between goûte and gut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: goûte is \ɡut\ while gut is \ɡyt\. 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 61721, 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\. gut is at rank #45,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡyt\.

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 61721, this pair ranks #90,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of goûte vs gut

Shared letters: gt. Private to "goûte": eoû. Private to "gut": u.

"goûte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "gut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "goûte" for "gut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "goûte" is a verb and "gut" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "goûte" or "gut" show up more?
"goûte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,632 in our French list, against #45,089 for "gut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "goûte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goûte" and "gut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #90,797 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