diff --git a/__tests__/frontload-hook.test.ts b/__tests__/frontload-hook.test.ts
index 5c03557ce..6868e4c75 100644
--- a/__tests__/frontload-hook.test.ts
+++ b/__tests__/frontload-hook.test.ts
@@ -5,13 +5,14 @@
  * for the RIGHT project — including the monorepo case where the agent's cwd is
  * an un-indexed workspace root and the index lives in a sub-project. These test
  * `planFrontload` / `findIndexedSubprojectRoots` directly (the hook's decision
- * logic), since the end-to-end hook is validated by a live agent run, not a
- * unit test.
+ * logic), plus the built CLI's confidence tiers against a real index.
  */
 import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach, vi } from 'vitest';
 import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as os from 'os';
 import * as path from 'path';
+import { spawnSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import { CodeGraph } from '../src';
 import { planFrontload, isTaskNotification, findIndexedSubprojectRoots, unsafeIndexRootReason, isStructuralPrompt, hasStructuralKeyword, extractCodeTokens, PROMPT_HOOK_INJECTION_MAX, CLAUDE_CODE_INLINE_HOOK_OUTPUT_LIMIT, capPromptHookInjection } from '../src/directory';
 
 // Make the built-in exports configurable so HOME can point at a real temp
@@ -302,6 +303,84 @@ describe('hasStructuralKeyword — Latin-script languages, Cyrillic, JA/KO (#112
   });
 });
 
+describe('prompt-hook ambiguous words need corroboration (#1654)', () => {
+  let tmp: string;
+
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    tmp = fs.realpathSync(fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'cg-hook-ambiguous-')));
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(tmp, 'orders.ts'), `
+export class OrderStateMachine {
+  submitOrder() { return true; }
+}
+`);
+    const cg = await CodeGraph.init(tmp, { silent: true });
+    try { await cg.indexAll(); } finally { cg.destroy(); }
+  });
+  afterEach(() => { fs.rmSync(tmp, { recursive: true, force: true }); });
+
+  function hook(prompt: string): string {
+    const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, [path.resolve(__dirname, '../dist/bin/codegraph.js'), 'prompt-hook'], {
+      cwd: tmp,
+      input: JSON.stringify({ cwd: tmp, prompt }),
+      encoding: 'utf8',
+      timeout: 15_000,
+      env: {
+        ...process.env,
+        CODEGRAPH_TELEMETRY: '0', DO_NOT_TRACK: '1', CODEGRAPH_NO_DAEMON: '1',
+        CODEGRAPH_NO_RELAUNCH: '1', CODEGRAPH_WASM_RELAUNCHED: '1',
+        // Enable only the hook subprocess under test.
+        CODEGRAPH_NO_PROMPT_HOOK: '0', CODEGRAPH_PROMPT_HOOK: '1',
+      },
+    });
+    expect(result.error).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(result.status, result.stderr).toBe(0);
+    return result.stdout;
+  }
+
+  it('stays silent for everyday Portuguese, Spanish and German without indexed evidence', () => {
+    for (const prompt of [
+      'eu como pizza toda sexta',
+      'faz como a gente combinou ontem',
+      'roda os testes como esta e me diz o resultado',
+      'commita isso como fix, nao como feat',
+      'hazlo como ayer',
+      'mach es wie gestern',
+      'COMO combinado ontem',
+      'Wie gestern bitte',
+      'como JavaScript?',
+      'wie MissingService?',
+      'run the tests and report back',
+    ]) {
+      expect.soft(hasStructuralKeyword(prompt), prompt).toBe(false);
+      expect.soft(hook(prompt), prompt).toBe('');
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('keeps HIGH for verified identifiers or another structural keyword', () => {
+    for (const prompt of [
+      'como OrderStateMachine?',
+      'como submitOrder()?',
+      'wie OrderStateMachine?',
+      'como funciona a máquina de estados?',
+      'wie funktioniert die Zustandsmaschine?',
+      'onde fica a lógica dos pedidos?',
+      '¿cómo se procesan los pedidos?',
+      'how does OrderStateMachine work?',
+    ]) {
+      expect.soft(hook(prompt), prompt).toContain('Structural context from CodeGraph');
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('uses MEDIUM for indexed prose segments without a strong keyword or verified token', () => {
+    for (const prompt of ['como state machine?', 'wie state machine?']) {
+      const output = hook(prompt);
+      expect(output, prompt).toContain('CodeGraph found indexed symbols matching this prompt');
+      expect(output).toContain('OrderStateMachine');
+      expect(output).not.toContain('Structural context from CodeGraph');
+    }
+  });
+});
+
 describe('extractCodeTokens — candidate symbols the hook verifies against the graph', () => {
   it('pulls camelCase / PascalCase / snake_case / call / member tokens', () => {
     expect(extractCodeTokens('prepareArticlePublish 的调用链')).toContain('prepareArticlePublish');
diff --git a/src/directory.ts b/src/directory.ts
index 160ac9c68..c07b71039 100644
--- a/src/directory.ts
+++ b/src/directory.ts
@@ -310,8 +310,9 @@ const NOT_WORD_AFTER = /(?![\p{L}\p{N}_])/u.source;
  * Structural keywords matched as EXACT words (boundary on both sides): short
  * or ambiguous tokens where prefix matching would false-positive ("flow" in
  * "flower", "path" in "pathological"). Grouped by language; a term appears once
- * even when several languages share it ("como" is Portuguese for how AND
- * unaccented-typed Spanish "cómo").
+ * even when several languages share it. Ambiguous everyday words like PT/ES
+ * "como" and DE "wie" are excluded: the hook instead requires another strong
+ * keyword, a verified code token, or indexed prose segments (#1654).
  */
 const STRUCTURAL_WORDS = [
   // English — the pre-#1126 list minus what moved to STRUCTURAL_STEMS: the
@@ -320,17 +321,16 @@ const STRUCTURAL_WORDS = [
   'how', 'where', 'tracing', 'flows?', 'paths?', 'reach(?:es|ed)?', 'wired?', 'breaks?', 'why does',
   // French (où=where, flux=flow, chemin=path, casse=breaks)
   'comment', 'où', 'flux', 'chemins?', 'casse',
-  // Spanish (cómo/como=how, dónde/donde=where, flujo=flow, ruta/camino=path,
+  // Spanish (cómo=how, dónde/donde=where, flujo=flow, ruta/camino=path,
   // rompe=breaks, llaman / quién llama = call(s) — bare "llama" is excluded:
   // it's also the animal/model name in English prompts)
   'cómo', 'dónde', 'donde', 'flujos?', 'rutas?', 'caminos?', 'rompe', 'llaman', 'quién llama', 'quien llama',
-  // Portuguese (como=how — also covers unaccented Spanish; onde=where,
-  // fluxo=flow, caminho=path)
-  'como', 'onde', 'fluxos?', 'caminhos?',
-  // German (wie=how, wo/woher/wohin=where, Pfad=path, Fluss/Ablauf=flow,
+  // Portuguese (onde=where, fluxo=flow, caminho=path)
+  'onde', 'fluxos?', 'caminhos?',
+  // German (wo/woher/wohin=where, Pfad=path, Fluss/Ablauf=flow,
   // bricht/kaputt=breaks, ruft=calls, hängt=depends — "hängt … von X ab"
   // splits the separable verb "abhängen", so the "abhäng" stem can't catch it)
-  'wie', 'wo', 'woher', 'wohin', 'pfade?', 'fluss', 'ablauf', 'bricht', 'kaputt', 'ruft', 'hängt',
+  'wo', 'woher', 'wohin', 'pfade?', 'fluss', 'ablauf', 'bricht', 'kaputt', 'ruft', 'hängt',
   // Italian (dove=where, flusso=flow, percorso/i=path)
   'dove', 'flusso', 'percors[oi]',
   // Russian (как=how, где=where, путь/пути=path, работает=works)