Which to use
“hess” and “hits” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,193
- “hess” frequency rank
- #19,855
- “hits” frequency rank
- 48048
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hess | hits |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | crise, misère, galère. | Pluriel de hit. |
Where the eye mixes hess and hits
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hess and hits follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: hess vs hits
A purely visual mix-up. hess (\hɛs\) and hits (\it\) 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 48048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hess is recorded at frequency rank #28,193, classified as anoun, pronounced \hɛs\. hits is at rank #19,855, tagged as anoun, pronounced \it\.
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 48048, this pair ranks #182,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hess vs hits
Shared letters: hs. Private to "hess": e. Private to "hits": it.
"hess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hess" and "hits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "hess" or "hits" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hess" and "hits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hash vs hess". 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 #182,057 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.