hébergevshébergerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#20,756
“héberge” frequency rank
#16,644
“héberger” frequency rank
37400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature héberge héberger
Definition Niveau d'un mur à partir duquel deux bâtiments, mitoyens au-dessous, commencent à se séparer. Recevoir chez soi, loger et nourrir.

Where the eye mixes héberge and héberger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. héberge runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against héberger's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
héberge
8 ch
héberger

Visual trap between héberge and héberger

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: héberge is \e.bɛʁʒ\ while héberger is ^((h muet))\e.bɛʁ.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “héberge” sits inside “héberger”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

héberge is recorded at frequency rank #20,756, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.bɛʁʒ\. héberger is at rank #16,644, tagged as averb, pronounced ^((h muet))\e.bɛʁ.ʒe\.

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 37400, this pair ranks #262,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of héberge vs héberger

Shared letters: beghré. Private to "héberge": -. Private to "héberger": -.

"héberge" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "héberger" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "héberge" for "héberger" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "héberge" is a noun and "héberger" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "héberge" vs "héberger" - which ranks higher?
"héberger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,644 in our French list, against #20,756 for "héberge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "héberge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "héberger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "héberge" and "héberger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "héberge vs hébergent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #262,761 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