Which to use
“tailler” is a verb and “tailleur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,873
- “tailler” frequency rank
- #13,701
- “tailleur” frequency rank
- 26574
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tailler | tailleur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Couper, retrancher d’une matière, en ôter avec le marteau, le ciseau, ou tout autre instrument, ce qu’il y a de superflu, pour lui donner une certaine forme, pour la rendre propre à tel ou tel usage. | Celui qui taille. |
Where the eye mixes tailler and tailleur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. tailler runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against tailleur's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tailler with tailleur
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tailler is \tɑ.je\ while tailleur is \tɑ.jœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tailler is recorded at frequency rank #12,873, classified as averb, pronounced \tɑ.je\. tailleur is at rank #13,701, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ.jœʁ\.
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 26574, this pair ranks #334,156 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tailler vs tailleur
Shared letters: aeilrt. Private to "tailler": -. Private to "tailleur": u.
"tailler" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "tailleur" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tailler" for "tailleur" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tailler" or "tailleur"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tailler" and "tailleur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tailler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tailleur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #334,156 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tailler" and "tailleur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tableur vs tailleur". 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 #334,156 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.