Which to use
“hôtes” and “hours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,560
- “hôtes” frequency rank
- #31,541
- “hours” frequency rank
- 40101
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hôtes | hours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de hôte. | Chevalets qui soutiennent l’arbre sur lequel travaillent des scieurs de long. |
Where the eye mixes hôtes and hours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hôtes and hours
A purely visual mix-up. hôtes (^((h muet))\ot\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hôtes is recorded at frequency rank #8,560, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ot\. 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 40101, this pair ranks #243,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hôtes vs hours
Shared letters: hs. Private to "hôtes": etô. Private to "hours": oru.
"hôtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hours ← hhours · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hôtes" and "hours" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hôtes" vs "hours" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hôtes" 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 #243,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hôtes" 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 #243,032 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.