carreravscarrierWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#44,356
“carrera” frequency rank
#23,130
“carrier” frequency rank
67486
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carrera carrier
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du futur de carrer. Celui qui exploite une carrière ou qui travaille dans une carrière.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set carrera and carrier apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
carrera
7 ch
carrier

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carrera is \ka.ʁə.ʁa\ while carrier is \ka.ʁje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carrera is recorded at frequency rank #44,356, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.ʁə.ʁa\. carrier is at rank #23,130, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁje\.

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 67486, this pair ranks #63,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carrera vs carrier

Shared letters: acer. Private to "carrera": -. Private to "carrier": i.

"carrera" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "carrier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carreraacrrera · carera · carerra · carrear · carrerra · carrrea · ccarrera · crarera
  • carrieracrrier · carier · carirer · carreir · carrierr · carrire · ccarrier · crarier

Frequency comparison

carrera#44,356
carrier#23,130

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carrera" and "carrier" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carrera" is a verb and "carrier" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carrera" or "carrier"?
"carrier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,130 in our French list, against #44,356 for "carrera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering carrera vs carrier

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “carrera”; for a noun, it's “carrier”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “carrera” 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