travailleursvstravailleuseTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,202
“travailleurs” frequency rank
#31,289
“travailleuse” frequency rank
33491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes travailleurs and travailleuse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. travailleurs (CCVCVVCCVVCC) and travailleuse (CCVCVVCCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

12 ch
travailleurs
12 ch
travailleuse

Visual trap between travailleurs and travailleuse

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: travailleurs is \tʁa.va.jœʁ\ while travailleuse is \tʁa.va.jøz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

travailleurs is recorded at frequency rank #2,202, classified as anadj, pronounced \tʁa.va.jœʁ\. travailleuse is at rank #31,289, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.va.jøz\.

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 33491, this pair ranks #290,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of travailleurs vs travailleuse

Shared letters: aeilrstuv. Private to "travailleurs": -. Private to "travailleuse": -.

"travailleurs" · 12 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVCC  ·  "travailleuse" · 12 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • travailleurs ← rtavailleurs · tarvailleurs · traavilleurs · travailelurs · travaileurs · travaillerus · travailleurrs · travailleurss
  • travailleuse ← rtavailleuse · tarvailleuse · traavilleuse · travaileluse · travaileuse · travaillesue · travailleues · travailluese

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "travailleurs" and "travailleuse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "travailleurs" is an adjective and "travailleuse" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "travailleurs" or "travailleuse" show up more?
"travailleurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,202 in our French list, against #31,289 for "travailleuse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "travailleurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "travailleuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "travailleurs" and "travailleuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travaillée 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 #290,272 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