heurvshoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“heur” and “hours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,538
“heur” frequency rank
#31,541
“hours” frequency rank
67079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heur hours
Definition Bonne fortune, chance heureuse. Chevalets qui soutiennent l’arbre sur lequel travaillent des scieurs de long.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
heur
5 ch
hours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. heur (^((h muet))\œʁ\) and hours (^((h aspiré))\uʁ\) 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 67079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heur is recorded at frequency rank #35,538, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\œʁ\. hours is at rank #31,541, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\uʁ\.

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 67079, this pair ranks #64,997 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of heur vs hours

Shared letters: hru. Private to "heur": e. Private to "hours": os.

"heur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heurehur · heru · heurr · hheur
  • hourshhours · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs

Frequency comparison

heur#35,538
hours#31,541

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heur" and "hours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (^((h muet))\œʁ\ versus ^((h aspiré))\uʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "heur" or "hours"?
"hours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,541 in our French list, against #35,538 for "heur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering heur vs hours

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “heur” 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