Which to use
“gratte” and “grotte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,013
- “gratte” frequency rank
- #7,329
- “grotte” frequency rank
- 16342
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gratte | grotte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | De la ciguatera, un empoisonnement banal par la consommation de certains poissons des récifs tropicaux et lagons. | Cavité plus ou moins profonde, dans un rocher ou dans une montagne, naturelle ou faite de main d’homme. |
Where the eye mixes gratte and grotte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gratte and grotte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses gratte with grotte
A purely visual mix-up. gratte (\ɡʁat\) and grotte (\ɡʁɔt\) 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 a single letter - a in “gratte” becomes o in “grotte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16342, 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\. grotte is at rank #7,329, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɔt\.
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 16342, this pair ranks #388,259 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of gratte vs grotte
Shared letters: egrt. Private to "gratte": a. Private to "grotte": o.
"gratte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "grotte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "gratte" and "grotte" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "gratte" vs "grotte" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "gratte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,259 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gratte" and "grotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Graeme vs gratte". 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 #388,259 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.