employéevsemployerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#7,821
“employée” frequency rank
#8,700
“employer” frequency rank
16521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature employée employer
Definition Celle qui est rétribuée pour produire un travail au sein d’une entreprise ou d’une administration. Utiliser ; user ; se servir de.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set employée and employer apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
employée
8 ch
employer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

employée and employer form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

employée is recorded at frequency rank #7,821, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.plwa.je\. employer is at rank #8,700, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.plwa.je\.

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 16521, this pair ranks #387,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

employée#7,821
employer#8,700

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "employée" and "employer" be used interchangeably?
No, "employée" and "employer" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering employée vs employer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “employée”; for a verb, it's “employer”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “employée” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list