hervshiverWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: her is a adverb, hiver is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“her” is an adverb and “hiver” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,053
“her” frequency rank
#1,180
“hiver” frequency rank
15233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature her hiver
Definition Indique un mouvement en direction du locuteur L’une des quatre saisons de l’année. Dans l’hémisphère nord, l’hiver astronomique s’étend du 7 novembre au 7 février, le solstice d’hiver représentant le milieu de l’hiver. L’hiver météorologique comprend les mois les plus froids de l’année, soit les mois de décembre, janvier et février. L’hiver calendaire français, enfin, s’étend du 21 décembre (solstice d’hiver) au 20 mars (équinoxe de printemps). Dans l’hémisphère sud, ce découpage correspond à la saison d’été.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set her and hiver apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
her
5 ch
hiver

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: her is \heːɐ̯\ while hiver is ^((h muet))\i.vɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

her is recorded at frequency rank #14,053, classified as anadv, pronounced \heːɐ̯\. hiver is at rank #1,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\i.vɛʁ\.

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 15233, this pair ranks #393,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of her vs hiver

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "her": -. Private to "hiver": iv.

"her" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hiver" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hiverhhiver · hievr · hiverr · hivre · hivver · hvier · ihver

Frequency comparison

her#14,053
hiver#1,180

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "her" and "hiver" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "her" is an adverb and "hiver" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "her" or "hiver"?
"hiver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,180 in our French list, against #14,053 for "her". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering her vs hiver

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “her”; for a noun, it's “hiver”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “her” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list