Which to use
“heure” and “hours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #346
- “heure” frequency rank
- #31,541
- “hours” frequency rank
- 31887
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heure | hours |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Chevalets qui soutiennent l’arbre sur lequel travaillent des scieurs de long. |
Where the eye mixes heure and hours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. heure (^((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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31887, 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\. 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 31887, this pair ranks #300,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heure vs hours
Shared letters: hru. Private to "heure": e. Private to "hours": os.
"heure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC