hourvshoursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hour” and “hours” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,576
“hour” frequency rank
#28,708
“hours” frequency rank
47284
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hour hours
Definition Stunde Plural des Substantivs hour

Where the eye mixes hour and hours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hour
5 ch
hours

Why the eye confuses hour with hours

A purely visual mix-up. hour ([aʊə(ɹ)]) and hours ([aʊə(ɹ)z]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hour” sits inside “hours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47284, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hour is recorded at frequency rank #18,576, classified as anoun, pronounced [aʊə(ɹ)]. hours is at rank #28,708, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aʊə(ɹ)z].

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 47284, this pair ranks #1,289,762 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hour vs hours

Shared letters: horu. Private to "hour": -. Private to "hours": s.

"hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hourhhour · horu · hourr · huor · ohur
  • hourshhours · horus · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hour" and "hours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([aʊə(ɹ)] versus [aʊə(ɹ)z]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "hour" or "hours" show up more?
"hour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,576 in our German list, against #28,708 for "hours". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "hour" and "hours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,289,762 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hour" and "hours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Homs vs hours". 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 #1,289,762 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list