Which to use
“grau” and “gril” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,808
- “grau” frequency rank
- #39,326
- “gril” frequency rank
- 81134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grau | gril |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chenal qui relie une étendue d’eau à la mer. | Ustensile de cuisine qui est fait de plusieurs lames de fer parallèles, fixées à quelque distance l’une de l’autre, et sur lequel on fait rôtir de la viande ou du poisson. Toute surface pour la cuisson vive des aliments sans corps gras. |
Where the eye mixes grau and gril
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. grau (CCVV) and gril (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses grau with gril
A purely visual mix-up. grau (\ɡʁo\) and gril (\ɡʁil\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81134, 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\. gril is at rank #39,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁil\.
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 81134, this pair ranks #19,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of grau vs gril
Shared letters: gr. Private to "grau": au. Private to "gril": il.
"grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "gril" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grau" for "gril" ever safe?
Which is more common, "grau" or "gril"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "grau" and "gril" 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 "gril" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grau" and "gril" 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 #19,411 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.