Which to use
“half” is a verb and “han” is an onomatopoeia - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,750
- “half” frequency rank
- #8,553
- “han” frequency rank
- 29303
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | half | han |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du prétérit de helfen. | Exclamation exprimant le cri sourd et guttural d’un homme fournissant un effort. |
Where the eye mixes half and han
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: half vs han
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: half is \half\ while han is ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs onomatopoeia), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
half is recorded at frequency rank #20,750, classified as averb, pronounced \half\. han is at rank #8,553, tagged as anonomatopoeia, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃\.
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 29303, this pair ranks #317,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of half vs han
Shared letters: ah. Private to "half": fl. Private to "han": n.
"half" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "han" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- half ← ahlf · hafl · halff · hallf · hhalf · hlaf
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "half" and "han" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "half" or "han"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "half" and "han" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "half" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "han" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "half" and "han" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "half 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 #317,532 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.