travailleurvstravailleursTell them apart

Quick tell: travailleur is a noun, travailleurs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“travailleur” is a noun and “travailleurs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,507
“travailleur” frequency rank
#2,202
“travailleurs” frequency rank
9709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature travailleur travailleurs
Definition Celui qui s’adonne au travail. Pluriel de travailleur.

Same sound, different letters: travailleur vs travailleurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. travailleur runs 11 letters (CCVCVVCCVVC) against travailleurs's 12 (CCVCVVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
travailleur
12 ch
travailleurs

Homophone desk: travailleur vs travailleurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: travailleur and travailleurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tʁa.va.jœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “travailleur” sits inside “travailleurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

travailleur is recorded at frequency rank #7,507, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.va.jœʁ\. travailleurs is at rank #2,202, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tʁa.va.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 9709, this pair ranks #415,715 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of travailleur vs travailleurs

Shared letters: aeilrtuv. Private to "travailleur": -. Private to "travailleurs": s.

"travailleur" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC  ·  "travailleurs" · 12 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • travailleur ← rtavailleur · tarvailleur · traavilleur · travailelur · travaileur · travailleru · travailleurr · travailluer
  • travailleurs ← rtavailleurs · tarvailleurs · traavilleurs · travailelurs · travaileurs · travaillerus · travailleurrs · travailleurss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "travailleur" and "travailleurs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "travailleur" is a noun and "travailleurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "travailleur" or "travailleurs" show up more?
"travailleurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,202 in our French list, against #7,507 for "travailleur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "travailleur" / "travailleurs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "travailleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "travailleurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,715 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "travailleur" and "travailleurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travailleur vs travailleuse". 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 #415,715 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