grafvsgraviWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: graf is a noun, gravi is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“graf” is a noun and “gravi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,196
“graf” frequency rank
#36,420
“gravi” frequency rank
82616
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature graf gravi
Definition Variante orthographique de graff. Participe passé masculin singulier de gravir.

Where the eye mixes graf and gravi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. graf runs 4 letters (CCVC) against gravi's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
graf
5 ch
gravi

Visual trap between graf and gravi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: graf is \ɡʁaf\ while gravi is \ɡʁa.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82616, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

graf is recorded at frequency rank #46,196, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁaf\. gravi is at rank #36,420, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡʁa.vi\.

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 82616, this pair ranks #16,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of graf vs gravi

Shared letters: agr. Private to "graf": f. Private to "gravi": iv.

"graf" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "gravi" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • graf ← garf · ggraf · grfa · grraf · rgaf
  • gravi ← garvi · ggravi · graiv · gravvi · grravi · grvai · rgavi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "graf" for "gravi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "graf" is a noun and "gravi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "graf" or "gravi" show up more?
"gravi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,420 in our French list, against #46,196 for "graf". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "graf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gravi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "graf" and "gravi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graf vs grow". 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 #16,361 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