Which to use
“heure” and “hour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #346
- “heure” frequency rank
- #27,094
- “hour” frequency rank
- 27440
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heure | hour |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Espèce de hangar ou d’atelier destiné à travailler le bois pour le sabotage, etc. |
Where the eye mixes heure and hour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between heure and hour
A purely visual mix-up. heure (^((h muet))\œʁ\) and hour (^((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 27440, 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\. hour is at rank #27,094, 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 27440, this pair ranks #328,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heure vs hour
Shared letters: hru. Private to "heure": e. Private to "hour": o.
"heure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heure" and "hour" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "heure" vs "hour" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "heure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heure" and "hour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heurt vs hour". 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 #328,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.