hihivshitsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hihi is a onomatopoeia, hits is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hihi” is an onomatopoeia and “hits” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,536
“hihi” frequency rank
#19,855
“hits” frequency rank
51391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hihi hits
Definition Gloussement de rire étouffé ou forcé. Pluriel de hit.

Where the eye mixes hihi and hits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hihi (CVCV) and hits (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
hihi
4 ch
hits

Visual trap between hihi and hits

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hihi is \i.i\ while hits is \it\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (onomatopoeia vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hihi is recorded at frequency rank #31,536, classified as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \i.i\. hits is at rank #19,855, tagged as anoun, pronounced \it\.

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 51391, this pair ranks #155,345 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hihi vs hits

Shared letters: hi. Private to "hihi": -. Private to "hits": st.

"hihi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hihi ← hhihi · hhii · hihhi · hiih · ihhi
  • hits ← hhits · hist · hitss · hitts · ihts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hihi" and "hits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hihi" is an onomatopoeia and "hits" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "hihi" or "hits" show up more?
"hits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,855 in our French list, against #31,536 for "hihi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hihi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,345 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hihi" and "hits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hihi vs hind". 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 #155,345 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list