hugvshuisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“hug” and “huis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,337
“hug” frequency rank
#18,217
“huis” frequency rank
57554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hug huis
Definition Accolade. (Aujourd’hui utilisé uniquement dans les locutions figées) Porte extérieure d’une maison.

Where the eye mixes hug and huis

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

3 ch
hug
4 ch
huis

Why the eye confuses hug with huis

A purely visual mix-up. hug (^((h aspiré))\œɡ\) and huis (^((h muet))\ɥi\) 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 57554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hug is recorded at frequency rank #39,337, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\œɡ\. huis is at rank #18,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\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 57554, this pair ranks #114,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hug vs huis

Shared letters: hu. Private to "hug": g. Private to "huis": is.

"hug" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "huis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • huishhuis · hius · huiss · husi · uhis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hug" and "huis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\œɡ\ versus ^((h muet))\ɥi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hug" vs "huis" - which ranks higher?
"huis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,217 in our French list, against #39,337 for "hug". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hug" and "huis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "huis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hug" and "huis" 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 #114,327 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