Which to use
“grève” and “grèves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,479
- “grève” frequency rank
- #10,333
- “grèves” frequency rank
- 12812
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grève | grèves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Terrain uni et sablonneux le long de la mer ou d’une grande rivière. | Pluriel de grève. |
Same sound, different letters: grève vs grèves
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. grève runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against grèves's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - grève and grèves
This is the hard kind. grève and grèves are pronounced identically (\ɡʁɛv\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “grève” sits inside “grèves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grève is recorded at frequency rank #2,479, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɛv\. grèves is at rank #10,333, 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 12812, this pair ranks #403,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of grève vs grèves
Shared letters: egrvè. Private to "grève": -. Private to "grèves": s.
"grève" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "grèves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grève" and "grèves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "grève" vs "grèves" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "grève" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grèves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grève" and "grèves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Greek vs grèves". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #403,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.