grâcevsgrueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#417
“grâce” frequency rank
#16,633
“grue” frequency rank
17050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grâce grue
Definition Ce qui plaît dans les attitudes, les manières, les discours : Un certain agrément, un certain charme indéfinissable. Gros oiseau voyageur, de l’ordre des Échassiers, qui vole fort haut et par bandes.

Where the eye mixes grâce and grue

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

5 ch
grâce
4 ch
grue

Visual trap between grâce and grue

A purely visual mix-up. grâce (\ɡʁɑs\) 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 17050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grâce is recorded at frequency rank #417, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɑs\. 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 17050, this pair ranks #385,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grâce vs grue

Shared letters: egr. Private to "grâce": . Private to "grue": u.

"grâce" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "grue" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grueggrue · greu · grrue · gure · rgue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grâce" and "grue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁɑs\ versus \ɡʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "grâce" vs "grue" - which ranks higher?
"grâce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #417 in our French list, against #16,633 for "grue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "grâce" 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 #385,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grâce" and "grue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gruber vs grue". 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 #385,050 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