grévsgutWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,767
“gré” frequency rank
#45,089
“gut” frequency rank
50856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gré gut
Definition Volonté, caprice, fantaisie. Rituel chamanique consistant à communiquer avec les esprits.

Where the eye mixes gré and gut

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

3 ch
gré
3 ch
gut

Visual trap between gré and gut

A purely visual mix-up. gré (\ɡʁe\) and gut (\ɡyt\) 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 50856, 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\. gut is at rank #45,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡyt\.

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 50856, this pair ranks #159,408 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gré vs gut

Shared letters: g. Private to "gré": . Private to "gut": tu.

"gré" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "gut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gré" and "gut" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁe\ versus \ɡyt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gré" or "gut"?
"gré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,767 in our French list, against #45,089 for "gut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "gut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,408 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gré" and "gut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #159,408 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