gravsgrauWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,481
“gra” frequency rank
#41,808
“grau” frequency rank
86289
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gra grau
Definition Acte, action. Chenal qui relie une étendue d’eau à la mer.

Where the eye mixes gra and grau

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gra runs 3 letters (CCV) against grau's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
gra
4 ch
grau

Look-alike desk: gra vs grau

A purely visual mix-up. gra (\ˈɡrɑː\) and grau (\ɡʁo\) 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 extra letter(s) - “gra” sits inside “grau”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gra is recorded at frequency rank #44,481, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɡrɑː\. grau is at rank #41,808, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁo\.

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 86289, this pair ranks #9,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gra vs grau

Shared letters: agr. Private to "gra": -. Private to "grau": u.

"gra" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grau ← garu · ggrau · grrau · grua · rgau

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gra" and "grau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɡrɑː\ versus \ɡʁo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gra" or "grau"?
"grau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,808 in our French list, against #44,481 for "gra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gra" and "grau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gra vs gx". 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 #9,944 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