goûtsvsgouttesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,458
“goûts” frequency rank
#9,011
“gouttes” frequency rank
14469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goûts gouttes
Definition Pluriel de goût. Pluriel de goutte.

Where the eye mixes goûts and gouttes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. goûts runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against gouttes's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
goûts
7 ch
gouttes

Visual trap between goûts and gouttes

A purely visual mix-up. goûts (\ɡu\) and gouttes (\ɡut\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goûts is recorded at frequency rank #5,458, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡu\. gouttes is at rank #9,011, 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 14469, this pair ranks #396,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of goûts vs gouttes

Shared letters: gost. Private to "goûts": û. Private to "gouttes": eu.

"goûts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "gouttes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gouttes ← ggouttes · gotutes · goutes · goutets · gouttess · gouttse · guottes · oguttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "goûts" and "gouttes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡu\ versus \ɡut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "goûts" or "gouttes" show up more?
"goûts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,458 in our French list, against #9,011 for "gouttes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "goûts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gouttes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goûts" and "gouttes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gods vs goûts". 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 #396,506 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