fermer vs fermière, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,424
“fermer” frequency rank: #43,941
“fermière” frequency rank: 46365
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fermer	fermière
Definition	Clore ce qui était ouvert, par une porte, un couvercle, une trappe, etc.	Agricultrice, personne qui travaille la terre.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fermer and fermière apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

fermer

8 ch

fermière

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fermer is \fɛʁ.me\ while fermière is \fɛʁ.mjɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fermer is recorded at frequency rank #2,424, classified as averb, pronounced \fɛʁ.me\. fermière is at rank #43,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛʁ.mjɛʁ\.

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 46365, this pair ranks #195,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fermer vs fermière

Shared letters: efmr. Private to "fermer": -. Private to "fermière": iè.

"fermer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fermière" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

fermer ← efrmer · femrer · feremr · fermerr · fermmer · fermre · ferrmer · ffermer

Frequency comparison

fermer#2,424

fermière#43,941

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fermer" and "fermière" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fermer" is a verb and "fermière" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fermer" or "fermière"?

"fermer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,424 in our French list, against #43,941 for "fermière". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering fermer vs fermière

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “fermer”; for a noun, it's “fermière”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fermer” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable