grévsgymWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,767
“gré” frequency rank
#10,512
“gym” frequency rank
16279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gré gym
Definition Volonté, caprice, fantaisie. Gymnastique.

Where the eye mixes gré and gym

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

3 ch
gré
3 ch
gym

Look-alike desk: gré vs gym

A purely visual mix-up. gré (\ɡʁe\) and gym (\ʒim\) 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 16279, 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\. gym is at rank #10,512, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒim\.

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 16279, this pair ranks #388,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gré vs gym

Shared letters: g. Private to "gré": . Private to "gym": my.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gré" and "gym" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁe\ versus \ʒim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gré" or "gym"?
"gré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,767 in our French list, against #10,512 for "gym". 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 "gym" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #388,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gré" and "gym" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gx vs gym". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #388,553 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