huervshuiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: huer is a verb, hui is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“huer” is a verb and “hui” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,925
“huer” frequency rank
#11,783
“hui” frequency rank
54708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature huer hui
Definition Poursuivre le loup avec des huées. Indication du jour du moment d’énonciation.

Where the eye mixes huer and hui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
huer
3 ch
hui

Visual trap between huer and hui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: huer is ^((h aspiré))\y.e\ while hui is \ɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

huer is recorded at frequency rank #42,925, classified as averb, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\y.e\. hui is at rank #11,783, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ɥi\.

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 54708, this pair ranks #132,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of huer vs hui

Shared letters: hu. Private to "huer": er. Private to "hui": i.

"huer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • huerhhuer · huerr · hure · uher

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "huer" and "hui" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "huer" is a verb and "hui" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "huer" or "hui" show up more?
"hui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,783 in our French list, against #42,925 for "huer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "huer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #132,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "huer" and "hui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs huer". 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 #132,210 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