Which to use
“heures” and “hours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #347
- “heures” frequency rank
- #31,541
- “hours” frequency rank
- 31888
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heures | hours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Heures canoniales. | Chevalets qui soutiennent l’arbre sur lequel travaillent des scieurs de long. |
Where the eye mixes heures and hours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. heures runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against hours's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between heures and hours
A purely visual mix-up. heures (^((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 31888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heures is recorded at frequency rank #347, 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 31888, this pair ranks #300,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heures vs hours
Shared letters: hrsu. Private to "heures": e. Private to "hours": o.
"heures" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "heures" for "hours" ever safe?
Which is more common, "heures" or "hours"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "heures" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heures" and "hours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heurt vs hours". 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 #300,931 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.