Which to use
“hour” and “hug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,094
- “hour” frequency rank
- #39,337
- “hug” frequency rank
- 66431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hour | hug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce de hangar ou d’atelier destiné à travailler le bois pour le sabotage, etc. | Accolade. |
Where the eye mixes hour and hug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hour runs 4 letters (CVVC) against hug's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between hour and hug
A purely visual mix-up. hour (^((h aspiré))\uʁ\) and hug (^((h aspiré))\œɡ\) 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 66431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hour is recorded at frequency rank #27,094, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\uʁ\. 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 66431, this pair ranks #67,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hour vs hug
Shared letters: hu. Private to "hour": or. Private to "hug": g.
"hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hug" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hour ← hhour · horu · hourr · huor · ohur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hour" for "hug" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hour" or "hug"?
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 "hour" 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 #67,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hour" and "hug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hug". 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 #67,862 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.