grisesvsgrossesConfusable pair

Which to use

“grises” and “grosses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,036
“grises” frequency rank
#2,367
“grosses” frequency rank
21403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grises grosses
Definition Féminin pluriel de gris. Féminin pluriel de gros.

Where the eye mixes grises and grosses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. grises runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against grosses's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
grises
7 ch
grosses

Look-alike desk: grises vs grosses

A purely visual mix-up. grises (\ɡʁiz\) and grosses (\ɡʁos\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grises is recorded at frequency rank #19,036, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁiz\. grosses is at rank #2,367, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁos\.

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 21403, this pair ranks #363,330 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grises vs grosses

Shared letters: egrs. Private to "grises": i. Private to "grosses": o.

"grises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "grosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grises ← ggrises · girses · griess · grisess · grisses · grrises · grsies · rgises
  • grosses ← ggrosses · gorsses · grosess · grossess · grossse · grrosses · grsoses · rgosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grises" for "grosses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁiz\ versus \ɡʁos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "grises" vs "grosses" - which ranks higher?
"grosses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,367 in our French list, against #19,036 for "grises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,330 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grises" and "grosses" 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 #363,330 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list