Which to use
“grade” and “grève” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,705
- “grade” frequency rank
- #2,479
- “grève” frequency rank
- 9184
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grade | grève |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Degré de dignité, d'honneur dans une hiérarchie. | Terrain uni et sablonneux le long de la mer ou d’une grande rivière. |
Where the eye mixes grade and grève
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: grade vs grève
A purely visual mix-up. grade (\ɡʁad\) and grève (\ɡʁɛv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grade is recorded at frequency rank #6,705, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁad\. grève is at rank #2,479, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɛv\.
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 9184, this pair ranks #417,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of grade vs grève
Shared letters: egr. Private to "grade": ad. Private to "grève": vè.
"grade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "grève" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- grade ← ggrade · gradde · graed · grdae · grrade · rgade
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grade" for "grève" ever safe?
Frequency check: "grade" vs "grève" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "grade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grève" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grade" and "grève" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grade vs Graeme". 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 #417,525 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.