heurevsheurterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: heure is a noun, heurter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“heure” is a noun and “heurter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#346
“heure” frequency rank
#18,768
“heurter” frequency rank
19114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heure heurter
Definition Unité de mesure du temps, compatible avec le Système international, dérivée de la seconde, dont le symbole est h. 1 heure = 60 minutes = 3600 secondes. Entrer brusquement en contact.

Where the eye mixes heure and heurter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
heure
7 ch
heurter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heure is ^((h muet))\œʁ\ while heurter is ^((h aspiré))\œʁ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heure is recorded at frequency rank #346, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\œʁ\. heurter is at rank #18,768, tagged as averb, 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 19114, this pair ranks #374,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of heure vs heurter

Shared letters: ehru. Private to "heure": -. Private to "heurter": t.

"heure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "heurter" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heureehure · herue · heuer · heurre · hheure · huere
  • heurterehurter · heruter · heuretr · heurrter · heurterr · heurtre · heurtter · heutrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heure" and "heurter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heure" is a noun and "heurter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "heure" or "heurter"?
"heure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #346 in our French list, against #18,768 for "heurter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list