Which to use
“grosses” is an adjective and “grottes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,367
- “grosses” frequency rank
- #14,048
- “grottes” frequency rank
- 16415
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grosses | grottes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de gros. | Pluriel de grotte. |
Where the eye mixes grosses and grottes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. grosses and grottes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: grosses vs grottes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grosses is \ɡʁos\ while grottes is \ɡʁɔt\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grosses is recorded at frequency rank #2,367, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁos\. grottes is at rank #14,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɔt\.
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 16415, this pair ranks #387,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of grosses vs grottes
Shared letters: egors. Private to "grosses": -. Private to "grottes": t.
"grosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "grottes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grosses" for "grottes" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "grosses" or "grottes" 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 "grosses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grottes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grosses" and "grottes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grosses vs grossis". 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 #387,951 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.