jervsjobWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“jer” and “job” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,458
“jer” frequency rank
#296
“job” frequency rank
32754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jer job
Definition either of the Proto-Slavic lax vowels /ɪ/ (front jer, ь) and /ʊ/ (back jer, ъ), which in Late Common Slavic were reduced in certain positions to ultrashort vowels [ɪ̆] and [ʊ̆] (weak jers) and then eventually lost. A task.

Where the eye mixes jer and job

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
jer
3 ch
job

Why the eye confuses jer with job

A purely visual mix-up. jer (/jɛə/) and job (/dʒɒb/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jer is recorded at frequency rank #32,458, classified as anoun, pronounced /jɛə/. job is at rank #296, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʒɒb/.

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 32754, this pair ranks #335,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jer vs job

Shared letters: j. Private to "jer": er. Private to "job": bo.

"jer" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "job" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jer" and "job" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/jɛə/ versus /dʒɒb/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jer" or "job"?
"job" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #296 in our English list, against #32,458 for "jer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "jer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "job" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jer" and "job" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jer vs Jura". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #335,198 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list