gravivsgrèveConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#36,420
“gravi” frequency rank
#2,479
“grève” frequency rank
38899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gravi grève
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de gravir. Terrain uni et sablonneux le long de la mer ou d’une grande rivière.

Where the eye mixes gravi and grève

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gravi and grève follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
gravi
5 ch
grève

Visual trap between gravi and grève

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gravi is \ɡʁa.vi\ while grève is \ɡʁɛv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gravi is recorded at frequency rank #36,420, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡʁa.vi\. grève is at rank #2,479, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɛv\.

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 38899, this pair ranks #252,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gravi vs grève

Shared letters: grv. Private to "gravi": ai. Private to "grève": eè.

"gravi" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "grève" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gravi ← garvi · ggravi · graiv · gravvi · grravi · grvai · rgavi

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gravi" and "grève" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gravi" is a verb and "grève" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gravi" or "grève"?
"grève" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,479 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gravi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grève" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gravi" and "grève" 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 #252,007 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