gutvsguysWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“gut” and “guys” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,089
“gut” frequency rank
#24,230
“guys” frequency rank
69319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gut guys
Definition Rituel chamanique consistant à communiquer avec les esprits. Pluriel de guy.

Where the eye mixes gut and guys

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gut runs 3 letters (CVC) against guys's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
gut
4 ch
guys

Why the eye confuses gut with guys

A purely visual mix-up. gut (\ɡyt\) and guys (\ɡaɪz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gut is recorded at frequency rank #45,089, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡyt\. guys is at rank #24,230, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡaɪz\.

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 69319, this pair ranks #55,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gut vs guys

Shared letters: gu. Private to "gut": t. Private to "guys": sy.

"gut" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "guys" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guys ← gguys · gusy · guyss · guyys · gyus · ugys

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gut" and "guys" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡyt\ versus \ɡaɪz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gut" vs "guys" - which ranks higher?
"guys" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,230 in our French list, against #45,089 for "gut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "gut" and "guys" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gut" and "guys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gut". 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 #55,599 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