habilevshabitezTell them apart

Quick tell: habile is a adjective, habitez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“habile” is an adjective and “habitez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,172
“habile” frequency rank
#19,850
“habitez” frequency rank
32022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habile habitez
Definition Adroit ; qui fait ce qu’il entreprend avec souplesse. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de habiter.

Where the eye mixes habile and habitez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. habile runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against habitez's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
habile
7 ch
habitez

Why the eye confuses habile with habitez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habile is ^((h muet))\a.bil\ while habitez is \a.bi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habile is recorded at frequency rank #12,172, classified as anadj, pronounced ^((h muet))\a.bil\. habitez is at rank #19,850, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.bi.te\.

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 32022, this pair ranks #300,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of habile vs habitez

Shared letters: abehi. Private to "habile": l. Private to "habitez": tz.

"habile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "habitez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habileahbile · habbile · habiel · hablie · haible · hbaile · hhabile
  • habitezahbitez · habbitez · habietz · habitezz · habittez · habitze · habtiez · haibtez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "habile" for "habitez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habile" is an adjective and "habitez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habile" or "habitez"?
"habile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,172 in our French list, against #19,850 for "habitez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "habile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "habitez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habile" and "habitez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habillez vs habitez". 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 #300,071 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