Which to use
“herb” is an adjective and “hier” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,983
- “herb” frequency rank
- #507
- “hier” frequency rank
- 36490
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | herb | hier |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Astringent, âcre, amer. | Le jour qui précède immédiatement celui où l’on est. Il y a un jour. |
Where the eye mixes herb and hier
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between herb and hier
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: herb is \hɛrp\ while hier is \jɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
herb is recorded at frequency rank #35,983, classified as anadj, pronounced \hɛrp\. hier is at rank #507, tagged as anadv, pronounced \jɛʁ\.
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 36490, this pair ranks #269,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of herb vs hier
Shared letters: ehr. Private to "herb": b. Private to "hier": i.
"herb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hier" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "herb" for "hier" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "herb" or "hier" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "herb" and "hier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "herb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #269,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "herb" and "hier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "herb vs heurt". 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 #269,208 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.