Which to use
“him” is a pronoun and “hug” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,888
- “him” frequency rank
- #39,337
- “hug” frequency rank
- 62225
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | him | hug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom de la troisième personne du singulier masculin accusatif. Le, lui. | Accolade. |
Where the eye mixes him and hug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: him vs hug
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: him is \hɪm\ while hug is ^((h aspiré))\œɡ\. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
him is recorded at frequency rank #22,888, classified as apron, pronounced \hɪm\. hug is at rank #39,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\œɡ\.
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 62225, this pair ranks #88,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of him vs hug
Shared letters: h. Private to "him": im. Private to "hug": gu.
"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hug" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "him" and "hug" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "him" or "hug" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "him" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "him" and "hug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hug". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #88,223 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.