héritevsheurtéConfusable pair

Quick tell: hérite is a verb, heurté is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hérite” is a verb and “heurté” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,652
“hérite” frequency rank
#18,501
“heurté” frequency rank
40153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hérite heurté
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de hériter. Qualifie un dessin où l’artiste a négligé de fondre les teintes avec soin et d’adoucir les contours, mais qui est large et vigoureux.

Where the eye mixes hérite and heurté

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hérite (CVCVCV) and heurté (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
hérite
6 ch
heurté

Visual trap between hérite and heurté

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hérite is \e.ʁit\ while heurté is ^((h aspiré))\œʁ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hérite is recorded at frequency rank #21,652, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ʁit\. heurté is at rank #18,501, tagged as anadj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\œʁ.te\.

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 40153, this pair ranks #242,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hérite vs heurté

Shared letters: ehrté. Private to "hérite": i. Private to "heurté": u.

"hérite" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "heurté" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hérite" and "heurté" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hérite" is a verb and "heurté" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hérite" vs "heurté" - which ranks higher?
"heurté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,501 in our French list, against #21,652 for "hérite". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hérite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heurté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hérite" and "heurté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hérite vs hésita". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #242,641 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