griefvsgrilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: grief is a adjective, gril is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“grief” is an adjective and “gril” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,185
“grief” frequency rank
#39,326
“gril” frequency rank
67511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grief gril
Definition Qui est grave, accablant. Ustensile de cuisine qui est fait de plusieurs lames de fer parallèles, fixées à quelque distance l’une de l’autre, et sur lequel on fait rôtir de la viande ou du poisson. Toute surface pour la cuisson vive des aliments sans corps gras.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set grief and gril apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
grief
4 ch
gril

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grief is \ɡʁi.jɛf\ while gril is \ɡʁil\. 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 67511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grief is recorded at frequency rank #28,185, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁi.jɛf\. gril is at rank #39,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁil\.

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 67511, this pair ranks #63,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grief vs gril

Shared letters: gir. Private to "grief": ef. Private to "gril": l.

"grief" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "gril" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • griefggrief · giref · greif · grieff · grrief · rgief
  • grilggril · grli · grril · rgil

Frequency comparison

grief#28,185
gril#39,326

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grief" and "gril" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grief" is an adjective and "gril" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "grief" or "gril"?
"grief" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,185 in our French list, against #39,326 for "gril". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering grief vs gril

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “grief”; for a noun, it's “gril”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “grief” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list