employésvsemployonsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: employés is a adjective, employons is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“employés” is an adjective and “employons” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,701
“employés” frequency rank
#49,060
“employons” frequency rank
50761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature employés employons
Definition Masculin pluriel de employé. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de employer.

Where the spellings diverge

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

8 ch
employés
9 ch
employons

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: employés is \ɑ̃.plwa.je\ while employons is \ɑ̃.plwa.jɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

employés is recorded at frequency rank #1,701, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.plwa.je\. employons is at rank #49,060, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.plwa.jɔ̃\.

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 50761, this pair ranks #160,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of employés vs employons

Shared letters: elmopsy. Private to "employés": é. Private to "employons": n.

"employés" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVVVC  ·  "employons" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • employonsemlpoyons · emmployons · emplloyons · emplooyns · employnos · employonns · employonss · employosn

Frequency comparison

employés#1,701
employons#49,060

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "employés" and "employons" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "employés" is an adjective and "employons" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "employés" or "employons"?
"employés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,701 in our French list, against #49,060 for "employons". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering employés vs employons

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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