hamavshangWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hama is a adjective, hang is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hama” is an adjective and “hang” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,985
“hama” frequency rank
#43,484
“hang” frequency rank
75469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hama hang
Definition Flou, incertain, inconcevable. Instrument à percussion formé de deux coupoles métalliques bosselées et creusées.

Where the eye mixes hama and hang

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hama (CVCV) and hang (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
hama
4 ch
hang

Look-alike desk: hama vs hang

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hama is \ˈhɑ.mɑ\ while hang is ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃ɡ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hama is recorded at frequency rank #31,985, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈhɑ.mɑ\. 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 75469, this pair ranks #34,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hama vs hang

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hama": m. Private to "hang": gn.

"hama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hama ← ahma · haam · hamma · hhama · hmaa
  • hang ← ahng · hagn · hangg · hanng · hhang · hnag

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hama" for "hang" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hama" is an adjective and "hang" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hama" vs "hang" - which ranks higher?
"hama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,985 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hama" 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 #34,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hama" 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 #34,009 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