grâcevsgratteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#417
“grâce” frequency rank
#9,013
“gratte” frequency rank
9430
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grâce gratte
Definition Ce qui plaît dans les attitudes, les manières, les discours : Un certain agrément, un certain charme indéfinissable. De la ciguatera, un empoisonnement banal par la consommation de certains poissons des récifs tropicaux et lagons.

Where the eye mixes grâce and gratte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
grâce
6 ch
gratte

Visual trap between grâce and gratte

A purely visual mix-up. grâce (\ɡʁɑs\) and gratte (\ɡʁat\) 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 9430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grâce is recorded at frequency rank #417, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɑs\. gratte is at rank #9,013, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁat\.

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 9430, this pair ranks #416,669 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grâce vs gratte

Shared letters: egr. Private to "grâce": . Private to "gratte": at.

"grâce" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "gratte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grattegartte · ggratte · grate · gratet · grratte · grtate · rgatte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grâce" and "gratte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁɑs\ versus \ɡʁat\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grâce" or "gratte"?
"grâce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #417 in our French list, against #9,013 for "gratte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "grâce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gratte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,669 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grâce" and "gratte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Graeme vs gratte". 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 #416,669 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