haguevsharpeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,839
“hague” frequency rank
#19,555
“harpe” frequency rank
52394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hague harpe
Definition Palissade. Cordophone à cordes pincées, que l'on tient debout, reposant par terre, garni de cordes verticales de longueur décroissante, que l’on pince avec les doigts.

Where the eye mixes hague and harpe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hague (CVCVV) and harpe (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
hague
5 ch
harpe

Visual trap between hague and harpe

A purely visual mix-up. hague (^((h aspiré))\aɡ\) and harpe (^((h aspiré))\aʁp\) 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 52394, 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\. harpe is at rank #19,555, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʁp\.

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 52394, this pair ranks #148,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hague vs harpe

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hague": gu. Private to "harpe": pr.

"hague" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "harpe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hague ← ahgue · hageu · haggue · hauge · hgaue · hhague
  • harpe ← ahrpe · hapre · harep · harppe · harrpe · hharpe · hrape

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hague" and "harpe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\aɡ\ versus ^((h aspiré))\aʁp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hague" vs "harpe" - which ranks higher?
"harpe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,555 in our French list, against #32,839 for "hague". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "hague" and "harpe" 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 "harpe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hague" and "harpe" 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 #148,023 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