haguevshaineWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,839
“hague” frequency rank
#2,177
“haine” frequency rank
35016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hague haine
Definition Palissade. Sentiment d’aversion, de répulsion, envers une personne ou un groupe, qui pousse à mépriser ou à vouloir détruire ce qui en est l’objet.

Where the eye mixes hague and haine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
hague
5 ch
haine

Why the eye confuses hague with haine

A purely visual mix-up. hague (^((h aspiré))\aɡ\) and haine (^((h aspiré))\ɛn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35016, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hague is recorded at frequency rank #32,839, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aɡ\. haine is at rank #2,177, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɛn\.

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 35016, this pair ranks #279,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hague vs haine

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hague": gu. Private to "haine": in.

"hague" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "haine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hagueahgue · hageu · haggue · hauge · hgaue · hhague
  • haineahine · haien · hainne · hanie · hhaine · hiane

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hague" for "haine" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\aɡ\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɛn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "hague" or "haine" show up more?
"haine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,177 in our French list, against #32,839 for "hague". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hague" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "haine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hague" and "haine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hague". 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 #279,759 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