guidervsguidesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: guider is a verb, guides is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“guider” is a verb and “guides” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,325
“guider” frequency rank
#9,174
“guides” frequency rank
18499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guider guides
Definition Accompagner quelqu’un pour lui montrer le chemin. Pluriel de guide.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set guider and guides apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
guider
6 ch
guides

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guider is \ɡi.de\ while guides is \ɡid\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “guider” becomes s in “guides”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guider is recorded at frequency rank #9,325, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡi.de\. guides is at rank #9,174, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡid\.

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 18499, this pair ranks #378,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of guider vs guides

Shared letters: degiu. Private to "guider": r. Private to "guides": s.

"guider" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "guides" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guidergguider · giuder · gudier · guidder · guiderr · guidre · guiedr · ugider
  • guidesgguides · giudes · gudies · guiddes · guidess · guidse · guieds · ugides

Frequency comparison

guider#9,325
guides#9,174

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "guider" and "guides" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "guider" is a verb and "guides" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "guider" or "guides"?
"guides" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,174 in our French list, against #9,325 for "guider". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering guider vs guides

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “guider”; for a noun, it's “guides”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “guider” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list