grévsguiTell them apart

Which to use

“gré” and “gui” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,767
“gré” frequency rank
#21,335
“gui” frequency rank
27102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gré gui
Definition Volonté, caprice, fantaisie. Plante verte hémiparasite et épiphyte à tiges articulées dichotomiques et à baies globuleuses qui croissent sur les branches de certains arbres, grâce à leur suçoir conique (ou haustorium) et dont les graines collantes sont disséminées par divers oiseaux.

Where the eye mixes gré and gui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
gré
3 ch
gui

Visual trap between gré and gui

A purely visual mix-up. gré (\ɡʁe\) and gui (\ɡi\) 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 27102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gré is recorded at frequency rank #5,767, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁe\. gui is at rank #21,335, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡi\.

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 27102, this pair ranks #331,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gré vs gui

Shared letters: g. Private to "gré": . Private to "gui": iu.

"gré" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "gui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gré" for "gui" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁe\ versus \ɡi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gré" vs "gui" - which ranks higher?
"gré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,767 in our French list, against #21,335 for "gui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gré" and "gui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #331,075 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