grassevsgrossiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: grasse is a adjective, grossi is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“grasse” is an adjective and “grossi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,967
“grasse” frequency rank
#22,287
“grossi” frequency rank
30254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grasse grossi
Definition Féminin singulier de gras. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe grossir.

Where the eye mixes grasse and grossi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grasse and grossi follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
grasse
6 ch
grossi

Look-alike desk: grasse vs grossi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grasse is \ɡʁɑs\ while grossi is \ɡʁo.si\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grasse is recorded at frequency rank #7,967, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁɑs\. grossi is at rank #22,287, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡʁo.si\.

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 30254, this pair ranks #311,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of grasse vs grossi

Shared letters: grs. Private to "grasse": ae. Private to "grossi": io.

"grasse" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "grossi" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grasse ← garsse · ggrasse · grase · grases · grrasse · grsase · rgasse
  • grossi ← ggrossi · gorssi · grosi · grosis · grrossi · grsosi · rgossi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grasse" for "grossi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grasse" is an adjective and "grossi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "grasse" or "grossi" show up more?
"grasse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,967 in our French list, against #22,287 for "grossi". 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 "grasse" and "grossi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grasse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grossi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grasse" and "grossi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grossi vs grossis". 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 #311,542 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