Which to use
“programme” is a noun and “programmer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #560
- “programme” frequency rank
- #16,707
- “programmer” frequency rank
- 17267
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | programme | programmer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Écrit donnant le détail d’un événement ou d'une succession d'événements. | Mettre dans un programme. |
Where the eye mixes programme and programmer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses programme with programmer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: programme is \pʁɔ.ɡʁam\ while programmer is \pʁɔ.ɡʁa.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “programme” sits inside “programmer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
programme is recorded at frequency rank #560, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.ɡʁam\. programmer is at rank #16,707, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.ɡʁa.me\.
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 17267, this pair ranks #384,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of programme vs programmer
Shared letters: aegmopr. Private to "programme": -. Private to "programmer": -.
"programme" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCCV · "programmer" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- programme ← porgramme · pprogramme · prgoramme · progarmme · proggramme · programe · programem · progrmame
- programmer ← porgrammer · pprogrammer · prgorammer · progarmmer · proggrammer · programemr · programer · programmerr
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "programme" and "programmer" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "programme" or "programmer" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "programme" and "programmer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "programme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "programmer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "programme" and "programmer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "programmer vs programmeurs". 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 #384,001 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.