Which to use
“harper” is a verb and “herpès” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,707
- “harper” frequency rank
- #32,433
- “herpès” frequency rank
- 40140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harper | herpès |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jouer de la harpe. | Maladie virale très contagieuse, sexuellement transmissible. Elle est caractérisée, pendant les périodes de crise, par une éruption vésiculeuse caractérisée par de légères élevures transparentes rassemblées en groupes sur une base enflammée. |
Where the eye mixes harper and herpès
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. harper and herpès follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses harper with herpès
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: harper is ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.pe\ while herpès is \ɛʁ.pɛs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harper is recorded at frequency rank #7,707, classified as averb, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.pe\. herpès is at rank #32,433, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛʁ.pɛs\.
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 40140, this pair ranks #242,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of harper vs herpès
Shared letters: ehpr. Private to "harper": a. Private to "herpès": sè.
"harper" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "herpès" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- harper ← ahrper · haprer · harepr · harperr · harpper · harpre · harrper · hharper
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harper" for "herpès" ever safe?
Which is more common, "harper" or "herpès"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "harper" and "herpès" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "harper" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "herpès" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harper" and "herpès" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "herpès vs hêtres". 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 #242,735 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.