Which to use
“grey” is an adjective and “gué” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,323
- “grey” frequency rank
- #24,618
- “gué” frequency rank
- 33941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grey | gué |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gris. | Endroit d’une rivière, d’un fleuve où l’eau est assez basse et le fond assez ferme pour qu’on puisse traverser à pied. |
Where the eye mixes grey and gué
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses grey with gué
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grey is \ɡreɪ\ while gué is \ɡe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grey is recorded at frequency rank #9,323, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡreɪ\. gué is at rank #24,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡe\.
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 33941, this pair ranks #287,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grey vs gué
Shared letters: g. Private to "grey": ery. Private to "gué": ué.
"grey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "gué" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- grey ← gery · ggrey · greyy · grrey · grye · rgey
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grey" for "gué" ever safe?
Which is more common, "grey" or "gué"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "grey" and "gué" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "grey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #287,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grey" and "gué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gué". 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 #287,235 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.