hachévshaeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#25,673
“haché” frequency rank
#49,121
“hae” frequency rank
74794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature haché hae
Definition Coupé en petits morceaux ; passé au hachoir. Kava.

Where the eye mixes haché and hae

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. haché runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against hae's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
haché
3 ch
hae

Why the eye confuses haché with hae

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: haché is ^((h aspiré))\a.ʃe\ while hae is \hae\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74794, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

haché is recorded at frequency rank #25,673, classified as anadj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\a.ʃe\. hae is at rank #49,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced \hae\.

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 74794, this pair ranks #35,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of haché vs hae

Shared letters: ah. Private to "haché": cé. Private to "hae": e.

"haché" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "hae" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "haché" for "hae" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "haché" is an adjective and "hae" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "haché" or "hae"?
"haché" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,673 in our French list, against #49,121 for "hae". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "haché" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hae" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "haché" and "hae" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs Hatem". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #35,994 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