holàvshumaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: holà is a intj, huma is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“holà” is an intj and “huma” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,841
“holà” frequency rank
#32,848
“huma” frequency rank
71689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holà huma
Definition Cri que les charretiers poussaient pour faire arrêter leurs chevaux. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de humer.

Where the eye mixes holà and huma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. holà and huma follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
holà
4 ch
huma

Look-alike desk: holà vs huma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: holà is ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.la\ while huma is ^((h aspiré))\y.ma\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

holà is recorded at frequency rank #38,841, classified as anintj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.la\. huma is at rank #32,848, tagged as averb, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\y.ma\.

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 71689, this pair ranks #46,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of holà vs huma

Shared letters: h. Private to "holà": loà. Private to "huma": amu.

"holà" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "huma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • huma ← hhuma · hmua · huam · humma · uhma

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "holà" for "huma" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "holà" is an intj and "huma" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "holà" or "huma" show up more?
"huma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,848 in our French list, against #38,841 for "holà". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "holà" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "huma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "holà" and "huma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holà vs Houda". 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 #46,679 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