gravsgrueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,481
“gra” frequency rank
#16,633
“grue” frequency rank
61114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gra grue
Definition Acte, action. Gros oiseau voyageur, de l’ordre des Échassiers, qui vole fort haut et par bandes.

Where the eye mixes gra and grue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gra
4 ch
grue

Look-alike desk: gra vs grue

A purely visual mix-up. gra (\ˈɡrɑː\) and grue (\ɡʁy\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61114, 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\. grue is at rank #16,633, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁy\.

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 61114, this pair ranks #93,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gra vs grue

Shared letters: gr. Private to "gra": a. Private to "grue": eu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grueggrue · greu · grrue · gure · rgue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gra" and "grue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɡrɑː\ versus \ɡʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "gra" or "grue" show up more?
"grue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,633 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gra" and "grue" 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 #93,992 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