Which to use
“grill” is a noun and “gris” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,616
- “grill” frequency rank
- #3,539
- “gris” frequency rank
- 28155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grill | gris |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Restaurant où l’on sert des grillades. | De couleur grise, entre le blanc et le noir. |
Where the eye mixes grill and gris
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses grill with gris
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grill is \ɡʁil\ while gris is \ɡʁi\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grill is recorded at frequency rank #24,616, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁil\. gris is at rank #3,539, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁi\.
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 28155, this pair ranks #324,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grill vs gris
Shared letters: gir. Private to "grill": l. Private to "gris": s.
"grill" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "gris" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grill" for "gris" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "grill" or "gris" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "grill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #324,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grill" and "gris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gorilla vs grill". 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 #324,567 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.