haisvshapWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,328
“hais” frequency rank
#41,324
“hap” frequency rank
50652
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hais hap
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de haïr. Ouvrir.

Where the eye mixes hais and hap

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

4 ch
hais
3 ch
hap

Why the eye confuses hais with hap

A purely visual mix-up. hais (\ɛ\) and hap (\ˈhap\) 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 50652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hais is recorded at frequency rank #9,328, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ\. hap is at rank #41,324, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈhap\.

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 50652, this pair ranks #160,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hais vs hap

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hais": is. Private to "hap": p.

"hais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hap" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hais ← ahis · haiss · hasi · hhais · hias

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hais" and "hap" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ\ versus \ˈhap\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "hais" or "hap" show up more?
"hais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,328 in our French list, against #41,324 for "hap". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hap" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hais" and "hap" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hap vs hash". 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 #160,991 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