guérirvsguérisConfusable pair

Quick tell: guérir is a verb, guéris is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“guérir” is a verb and “guéris” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,575
“guérir” frequency rank
#28,186
“guéris” frequency rank
35761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guérir guéris
Definition Délivrer d’un mal physique. Masculin pluriel de guéri.

Where the eye mixes guérir and guéris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. guérir and guéris follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
guérir
6 ch
guéris

Look-alike desk: guérir vs guéris

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guérir is \ɡe.ʁiʁ\ while guéris is \ɡe.ʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “guérir” becomes s in “guéris”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guérir is recorded at frequency rank #7,575, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡe.ʁiʁ\. guéris is at rank #28,186, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡe.ʁi\.

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 35761, this pair ranks #274,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of guérir vs guéris

Shared letters: girué. Private to "guérir": -. Private to "guéris": s.

"guérir" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "guéris" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "guérir" for "guéris" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "guérir" is a verb and "guéris" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "guérir" or "guéris"?
"guérir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,575 in our French list, against #28,186 for "guéris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "guérir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guéris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guérir" and "guéris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guéret vs guéris". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #274,437 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