hourvshouseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,576
“hour” frequency rank
#4,210
“house” frequency rank
22786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hour house
Definition Stunde Wohnort des Menschen; Gebäude, das errichtet wurde, um in ihm zu wohnen

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hour and house apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
hour
5 ch
house

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. hour ([aʊə(ɹ)]) and house ([haʊs]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22786, 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)]. house is at rank #4,210, tagged as anoun, pronounced [haʊs].

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 22786, this pair ranks #1,869,778 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hour vs house

Shared letters: hou. Private to "hour": r. Private to "house": es.

"hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "house" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hourhhour · horu · hourr · huor · ohur
  • househhouse · hosue · houes · housse · huose · ohuse

Frequency comparison

hour#18,576
house#4,210

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hour" and "house" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([aʊə(ɹ)] versus [haʊs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hour" or "house"?
"house" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,210 in our German list, against #18,576 for "hour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hour vs house

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hour” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list