grattevsgrattonWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,013
“gratte” frequency rank
#47,924
“gratton” frequency rank
56937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gratte gratton
Definition De la ciguatera, un empoisonnement banal par la consommation de certains poissons des récifs tropicaux et lagons. (Usuellement au pluriel) Résidu de viande de porc ou de canard gras frit dans de la graisse.

Where the eye mixes gratte and gratton

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
gratte
7 ch
gratton

Why the eye confuses gratte with gratton

A purely visual mix-up. gratte (\ɡʁat\) and gratton (\ɡʁa.tɔ̃\) 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 56937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gratte is recorded at frequency rank #9,013, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁat\. gratton is at rank #47,924, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁa.tɔ̃\.

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 56937, this pair ranks #118,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gratte vs gratton

Shared letters: agrt. Private to "gratte": e. Private to "gratton": no.

"gratte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "gratton" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grattegartte · ggratte · grate · gratet · grratte · grtate · rgatte
  • grattongartton · ggratton · graton · gratotn · grattno · grattonn · grratton · grtaton

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gratte" and "gratton" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁat\ versus \ɡʁa.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "gratte" or "gratton" show up more?
"gratte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,013 in our French list, against #47,924 for "gratton". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gratte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gratton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gratte" and "gratton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grattant vs gratton". 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 #118,037 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