grammairevsgrammarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,573
“grammaire” frequency rank
#38,827
“grammar” frequency rank
46400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grammaire grammar
Definition Art de parler et d’écrire correctement, ensemble des règles d’une langue. Grammaire.

Where the eye mixes grammaire and grammar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. grammaire runs 9 letters (CCVCCVVCV) against grammar's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
grammaire
7 ch
grammar

Look-alike desk: grammaire vs grammar

A purely visual mix-up. grammaire (\ɡʁa.mɛʁ\) and grammar (\ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grammaire is recorded at frequency rank #7,573, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁa.mɛʁ\. grammar is at rank #38,827, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)\.

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 46400, this pair ranks #195,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of grammaire vs grammar

Shared letters: agmr. Private to "grammaire": ei. Private to "grammar": -.

"grammaire" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCV  ·  "grammar" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grammairegarmmaire · ggrammaire · gramaire · gramamire · grammaier · grammairre · grammarie · grammiare
  • grammargarmmar · ggrammar · gramamr · gramar · grammarr · grammra · grmamar · grrammar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grammaire" for "grammar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁa.mɛʁ\ versus \ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "grammaire" vs "grammar" - which ranks higher?
"grammaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,573 in our French list, against #38,827 for "grammar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "grammaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grammar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grammaire" and "grammar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grammar vs Grammy". 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 #195,252 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