Which to use
“grèves” is a noun and “grises” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,333
- “grèves” frequency rank
- #19,036
- “grises” frequency rank
- 29369
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grèves | grises |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de grève. | Féminin pluriel de gris. |
Where the eye mixes grèves and grises
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grèves and grises follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: grèves vs grises
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grèves is \ɡʁɛv\ while grises is \ɡʁiz\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grèves is recorded at frequency rank #10,333, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɛv\. grises is at rank #19,036, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁiz\.
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 29369, this pair ranks #317,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grèves vs grises
Shared letters: egrs. Private to "grèves": vè. Private to "grises": i.
"grèves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "grises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- grises ← ggrises · girses · griess · grisess · grisses · grrises · grsies · rgises
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grèves" for "grises" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "grèves" or "grises" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "grèves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grèves" and "grises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grises vs grisons". 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 #317,120 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.