collaborevscollaborerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,653
“collabore” frequency rank
#12,744
“collaborer” frequency rank
30397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature collabore collaborer
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe collaborer. Travailler en collaboration.

Where the eye mixes collabore and collaborer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. collabore runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against collaborer's 10 (CVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
collabore
10 ch
collaborer

Look-alike desk: collabore vs collaborer

A purely visual mix-up. collabore (\kɔ.la.bɔʁ\) and collaborer (\kɔ.la.bɔ.ʁe\) 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 extra letter(s) - “collabore” sits inside “collaborer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

collabore is recorded at frequency rank #17,653, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.la.bɔʁ\. collaborer is at rank #12,744, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.la.bɔ.ʁe\.

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 30397, this pair ranks #310,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of collabore vs collaborer

Shared letters: abcelor. Private to "collabore": -. Private to "collaborer": -.

"collabore" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "collaborer" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • collabore ← ccollabore · clolabore · colabore · colalbore · collabbore · collaboer · collabroe · collaobre
  • collaborer ← ccollaborer · clolaborer · colaborer · colalborer · collabborer · collaboerr · collaborerr · collaborre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "collabore" and "collaborer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.la.bɔʁ\ versus \kɔ.la.bɔ.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "collabore" or "collaborer"?
"collaborer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,744 in our French list, against #17,653 for "collabore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "collabore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "collaborer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "collabore" and "collaborer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "collabore vs collabos". 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 #310,592 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