grassvsgrauConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,828
“grass” frequency rank
#41,808
“grau” frequency rank
80636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grass grau
Definition Herbe. Chenal qui relie une étendue d’eau à la mer.

Where the eye mixes grass and grau

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

5 ch
grass
4 ch
grau

Visual trap between grass and grau

A purely visual mix-up. grass (\ɡɹɑːs\) and grau (\ɡʁo\) 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 80636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grass is recorded at frequency rank #38,828, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɹɑːs\. grau is at rank #41,808, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁo\.

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 80636, this pair ranks #20,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grass vs grau

Shared letters: agr. Private to "grass": s. Private to "grau": u.

"grass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grass ← ggrass · grrass · grsas · rgass
  • grau ← garu · ggrau · grrau · grua · rgau

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grass" and "grau" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɹɑːs\ versus \ɡʁo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "grass" vs "grau" - which ranks higher?
"grass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,828 in our French list, against #41,808 for "grau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "grass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grass" and "grau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grau 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 #20,492 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