Which to use
“travail” and “travaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #194
- “travail” frequency rank
- #641
- “travaux” frequency rank
- 835
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travail | travaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Labeur, application à une tâche, effort soutenu pour faire quelque chose, en parlant de l’esprit comme du corps. | Pluriel de travail : Suite d’études, d’opérations, d’entreprises, pour élaborer, construire, édifier, quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes travail and travaux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. travail and travaux follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses travail with travaux
A purely visual mix-up. travail (\tʁa.vaj\) and travaux (\tʁa.vo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
travail is recorded at frequency rank #194, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.vaj\. travaux is at rank #641, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.vo\.
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 835, this pair ranks #439,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of travail vs travaux
Shared letters: artv. Private to "travail": il. Private to "travaux": ux.
"travail" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "travaux" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "travail" and "travaux" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "travail" or "travaux"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "travail" and "travaux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "travail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travail" and "travaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travaux vs tribaux". 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 #439,050 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.