gravesvsgraviWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: graves is a noun, gravi is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“graves” is a noun and “gravi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,139
“graves” frequency rank
#36,420
“gravi” frequency rank
39559
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature graves gravi
Definition Dans le sud-ouest de la France, terrain détritique de l’ère tertiaire constitué de graviers fluviatiles. Participe passé masculin singulier de gravir.

Where the eye mixes graves and gravi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. graves runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against gravi's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
graves
5 ch
gravi

Visual trap between graves and gravi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: graves is \ɡʁav\ while gravi is \ɡʁa.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

graves is recorded at frequency rank #3,139, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁav\. gravi is at rank #36,420, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡʁa.vi\.

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 39559, this pair ranks #247,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of graves vs gravi

Shared letters: agrv. Private to "graves": es. Private to "gravi": i.

"graves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "gravi" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • graves ← garves · ggraves · graevs · gravess · gravse · gravves · grraves · grvaes
  • gravi ← garvi · ggravi · graiv · gravvi · grravi · grvai · rgavi

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "graves" and "gravi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "graves" is a noun and "gravi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "graves" or "gravi" show up more?
"graves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,139 in our French list, against #36,420 for "gravi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "graves" and "gravi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "graves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gravi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #247,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "graves" and "gravi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ghazi vs gravi". 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 #247,064 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