occupervsoccupésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: occuper is a verb, occupés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,091
“occuper” frequency rank
#7,211
“occupés” frequency rank
9302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature occuper occupés
Definition Prendre possession de ; conserver en sa possession. Masculin pluriel de occupé.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
occuper
7 ch
occupés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: occuper and occupés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɔ.ky.pe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

occuper is recorded at frequency rank #2,091, classified as averb, pronounced \ɔ.ky.pe\. occupés is at rank #7,211, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɔ.ky.pe\.

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 9302, this pair ranks #417,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of occuper vs occupés

Shared letters: copu. Private to "occuper": er. Private to "occupés": .

"occuper" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "occupés" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • occupercocuper · occpuer · occuepr · occuperr · occupper · occupre · ocucper · ocuper

Frequency comparison

occuper#2,091
occupés#7,211

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "occuper" and "occupés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "occuper" is a verb and "occupés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "occuper" or "occupés"?
"occuper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,091 in our French list, against #7,211 for "occupés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering occuper vs occupés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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