H vs hk, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“H” and “hk” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#410
“H” frequency rank: #24,998
“hk” frequency rank: 25408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	H	hk
Definition	Symbole chimique de l’hydrogène.	Symbole du préfixe hectokilo-, signifiant 10⁵.

Letter map: H vs hk

Shared letters muted; letters that set H and hk apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

2 ch

Corpus notes: H and hk

H and hk are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “H” sits inside “hk”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

H is recorded at frequency rank #410, classified as asymbol. hk is at rank #24,998, tagged as asymbol.

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 25408, this pair ranks #341,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of H vs hk

Shared letters: h. Private to "H": -. Private to "hk": k.

"H" · 1 letters · shape C · "hk" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "H" for "hk" ever safe?

No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “H” sits inside “hk”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary French text, does "H" or "hk" show up more?

"H" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #410 in our French list, against #24,998 for "hk". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "H" and "hk".

Full dictionary entry for "H" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #341,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"H" and "hk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hk". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #341,045 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.