Which to use
“hêtre” and “heures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,595
- “hêtre” frequency rank
- #347
- “heures” frequency rank
- 28942
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hêtre | heures |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arbre du genre Fagus de la famille des fagacées, à feuilles caduques ovales à nervation pennée et souvent dentées, de haute taille, à écorce lisse gris-clair pouvant fournir du tanin, en particulier le hêtre commun (Fagus sylvatica L. 1753). | Heures canoniales. |
Where the eye mixes hêtre and heures
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: hêtre vs heures
A purely visual mix-up. hêtre (^((h aspiré))\ɛtʁ\) and heures (^((h muet))\œʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hêtre is recorded at frequency rank #28,595, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɛtʁ\. heures is at rank #347, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\œʁ\.
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 28942, this pair ranks #319,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hêtre vs heures
Shared letters: ehr. Private to "hêtre": tê. Private to "heures": su.
"hêtre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "heures" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- heures ← ehures · herues · heuers · heuress · heurres · heurse · hheures · hueres
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hêtre" and "heures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hêtre" or "heures"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hêtre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #319,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hêtre" and "heures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hedge vs hêtre". 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 #319,692 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.