henvshubWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hen” and “hub” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,208
“hen” frequency rank
#19,558
“hub” frequency rank
65766
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hen hub
Definition Poule. Plaque tournante.

Where the eye mixes hen and hub

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
hen
3 ch
hub

Why the eye confuses hen with hub

A purely visual mix-up. hen (\ˈhɛn\) and hub (^((h aspiré))\œb\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hen is recorded at frequency rank #46,208, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhɛn\. hub is at rank #19,558, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\œb\.

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 65766, this pair ranks #70,875 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hen vs hub

Shared letters: h. Private to "hen": en. Private to "hub": bu.

"hen" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hub" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hen" and "hub" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈhɛn\ versus ^((h aspiré))\œb\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "hen" or "hub" show up more?
"hub" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,558 in our French list, against #46,208 for "hen". 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 "hen" and "hub" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hub" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,875 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hen" and "hub" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hen". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #70,875 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