jobvsjoncConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,145
“job” frequency rank
#41,850
“jonc” frequency rank
44995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature job jonc
Definition Petit emploi, petit boulot, souvent faiblement rémunéré et temporaire. Nom donné à des plantes à tige droite et flexible, qui croissent ordinairement le long des eaux, ou même dans l’eau, et dont plusieurs espèces servaient à faire des liens, des nattes, des cannes, etc., du genre Juncus ou qui rappellent ce genre par leur apparence.

Where the eye mixes job and jonc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. job runs 3 letters (CVC) against jonc's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
job
4 ch
jonc

Visual trap between job and jonc

A purely visual mix-up. job (\dʒɔb\) and jonc (\ʒɔ̃\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

job is recorded at frequency rank #3,145, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʒɔb\. jonc is at rank #41,850, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒɔ̃\.

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 44995, this pair ranks #206,209 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of job vs jonc

Shared letters: jo. Private to "job": b. Private to "jonc": cn.

"job" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "jonc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jonc ← jjonc · jnoc · jocn · joncc · jonnc · ojnc

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "job" and "jonc" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dʒɔb\ versus \ʒɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "job" or "jonc" show up more?
"job" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,145 in our French list, against #41,850 for "jonc". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "job" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jonc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,209 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "job" and "jonc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jonc vs jor". 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 #206,209 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