chômeurvschômeursWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chômeur is a noun, chômeurs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chômeur” is a noun and “chômeurs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,479
“chômeur” frequency rank
#6,475
“chômeurs” frequency rank
25954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chômeur chômeurs
Definition Personne pouvant et souhaitant travailler mais qui est sans emploi. Masculin pluriel de chômeur.

Same sound, different letters: chômeur vs chômeurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. chômeur runs 7 letters (CCVCVVC) against chômeurs's 8 (CCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
chômeur
8 ch
chômeurs

Ear matches; page differs - chômeur and chômeurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: chômeur and chômeurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʃo.mœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “chômeur” sits inside “chômeurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chômeur is recorded at frequency rank #19,479, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃo.mœʁ\. chômeurs is at rank #6,475, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃo.mœʁ\.

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 25954, this pair ranks #337,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chômeur vs chômeurs

Shared letters: cehmruô. Private to "chômeur": -. Private to "chômeurs": s.

"chômeur" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "chômeurs" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chômeur" and "chômeurs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chômeur" is a noun and "chômeurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chômeur" vs "chômeurs" - which ranks higher?
"chômeurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,475 in our French list, against #19,479 for "chômeur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chômeur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chômeurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chômeur" and "chômeurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chômeur vs clameur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #337,916 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