Which to use
“guère” is an adverb and “guerra” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,924
- “guère” frequency rank
- #42,371
- “guerra” frequency rank
- 46295
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | guère | guerra |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Presque pas ; presque rien. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de guerrer. |
Where the eye mixes guère and guerra
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. guère runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against guerra's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses guère with guerra
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guère is \ɡɛʁ\ while guerra is \ɡɛ.ʁa\. 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 (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
guère is recorded at frequency rank #3,924, classified as anadv, pronounced \ɡɛʁ\. guerra is at rank #42,371, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡɛ.ʁa\.
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 46295, this pair ranks #196,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of guère vs guerra
Shared letters: egru. Private to "guère": è. Private to "guerra": a.
"guère" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "guerra" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- guerra ← geurra · gguerra · guera · guerar · gurera · ugerra
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "guère" for "guerra" ever safe?
Which is more common, "guère" or "guerra"?
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 "guère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "guerra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #196,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "guère" and "guerra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guéret vs guerra". 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 #196,071 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.