Which to use
“grau” and “gray” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,808
- “grau” frequency rank
- #12,973
- “gray” frequency rank
- 54781
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grau | gray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chenal qui relie une étendue d’eau à la mer. | Unité de mesure de dose absorbée du Système international (SI), définie comme valant 1 joule par kilogramme. Son symbole est Gy. |
Where the eye mixes grau and gray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: grau vs gray
A purely visual mix-up. grau (\ɡʁo\) and gray (\ɡʁe\) 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 - u in “grau” becomes y in “gray”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grau is recorded at frequency rank #41,808, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁo\. gray is at rank #12,973, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁe\.
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 54781, this pair ranks #131,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grau vs gray
Shared letters: agr. Private to "grau": u. Private to "gray": y.
"grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "gray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grau" for "gray" ever safe?
Frequency check: "grau" vs "gray" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "grau" and "gray" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "grau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #131,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grau" and "gray" 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 #131,721 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.