hâtervshotelWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hâter is a verb, hotel is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hâter” is a verb and “hotel” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,928
“hâter” frequency rank
#7,576
“hotel” frequency rank
50504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hâter hotel
Definition Faire avancer vite ; accélérer. (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour la lettre latine H.

Where the eye mixes hâter and hotel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hâter and hotel follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
hâter
5 ch
hotel

Visual trap between hâter and hotel

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hâter is ^((h aspiré))\ɑ.te\ while hotel is \hoˈtɛl\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hâter is recorded at frequency rank #42,928, classified as averb, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɑ.te\. hotel is at rank #7,576, tagged as anoun, pronounced \hoˈtɛl\.

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 50504, this pair ranks #162,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hâter vs hotel

Shared letters: eht. Private to "hâter": râ. Private to "hotel": lo.

"hâter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hotel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hotel ← hhotel · hoetl · hotell · hotle · hottel · htoel · ohtel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hâter" for "hotel" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hâter" is a verb and "hotel" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hâter" vs "hotel" - which ranks higher?
"hotel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,576 in our French list, against #42,928 for "hâter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hâter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hotel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hâter" and "hotel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hâter vs haters". 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 #162,130 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