Which to use
“gué” is a noun and “guère” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,618
- “gué” frequency rank
- #3,924
- “guère” frequency rank
- 28542
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gué | guère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Presque pas ; presque rien. |
Where the eye mixes gué and guère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gué runs 3 letters (CVV) against guère's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses gué with guère
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gué is \ɡe\ while guère is \ɡɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gué is recorded at frequency rank #24,618, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡe\. guère is at rank #3,924, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ɡɛʁ\.
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 28542, this pair ranks #322,147 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gué vs guère
Shared letters: gu. Private to "gué": é. Private to "guère": erè.
"gué" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "guère" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gué" and "guère" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "gué" or "guère" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gué" and "guère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "guère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #322,147 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gué" and "guère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gué". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #322,147 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.