HaivshangConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,196
“Hai” frequency rank
#43,484
“hang” frequency rank
73680
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hai hang
Definition Requin, squale. Instrument à percussion formé de deux coupoles métalliques bosselées et creusées.

Where the eye mixes Hai and hang

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Hai runs 3 letters (CVV) against hang's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Hai
4 ch
hang

Look-alike desk: Hai vs hang

A purely visual mix-up. Hai (\haɪ̯\) and hang (^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃ɡ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hai is recorded at frequency rank #30,196, classified as anoun, pronounced \haɪ̯\. hang is at rank #43,484, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃ɡ\.

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 73680, this pair ranks #39,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Hai vs hang

Shared letters: ah. Private to "Hai": i. Private to "hang": gn.

"Hai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "hang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hang ← ahng · hagn · hangg · hanng · hhang · hnag

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Hai" and "hang" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\haɪ̯\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃ɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Hai" vs "hang" - which ranks higher?
"Hai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,196 in our French list, against #43,484 for "hang". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hang" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hai" and "hang" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hang vs having". 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 #39,642 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