tailleurvstailleursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,701
“tailleur” frequency rank
#30,834
“tailleurs” frequency rank
44535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tailleur tailleurs
Definition Celui qui taille. Pluriel de tailleur.

Same sound, different letters: tailleur vs tailleurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. tailleur runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against tailleurs's 9 (CVVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
tailleur
9 ch
tailleurs

Same sound, different spelling - tailleur / tailleurs

This is the hard kind. tailleur and tailleurs are pronounced identically (\tɑ.jœʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tailleur” sits inside “tailleurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tailleur is recorded at frequency rank #13,701, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ.jœʁ\. tailleurs is at rank #30,834, 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 44535, this pair ranks #209,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tailleur vs tailleurs

Shared letters: aeilrtu. Private to "tailleur": -. Private to "tailleurs": s.

"tailleur" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "tailleurs" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tailleur ← atilleur · tailelur · taileur · tailleru · tailleurr · tailluer · talileur · tialleur
  • tailleurs ← atilleurs · tailelurs · taileurs · taillerus · tailleurrs · tailleurss · tailleusr · tailluers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tailleur" for "tailleurs" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\tɑ.jœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "tailleur" or "tailleurs" show up more?
"tailleur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,701 in our French list, against #30,834 for "tailleurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tailleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tailleurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tailleur" and "tailleurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tailleurs vs tilleuls". 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 #209,757 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