Which to use
“have” and “haven” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,020
- “have” frequency rank
- #27,088
- “haven” frequency rank
- 36108
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | have | haven |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite éminence qui, sur le panneton d’une clé bénarde, empêche celle-ci de traverser la serrure. | Refuge, abri. |
Where the eye mixes have and haven
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between have and haven
A purely visual mix-up. have (^((h aspiré))\av\) and haven (\ˈheɪ.vən\) 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 extra letter(s) - “have” sits inside “haven”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
have is recorded at frequency rank #9,020, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\av\. haven is at rank #27,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈheɪ.vən\.
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 36108, this pair ranks #271,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of have vs haven
Shared letters: aehv. Private to "have": -. Private to "haven": n.
"have" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "haven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "have" and "haven" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "have" or "haven"?
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 "have" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "haven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "have" and "haven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haven 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 #271,945 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.