HabenvshaveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Haben is a noun, have is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Haben” is a noun and “have” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#50
“Haben” frequency rank
#5,376
“have” frequency rank
5426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Haben have
Definition Gesamtheit der Einnahmen und des Besitzes, Guthaben haben; besitzen; zur Verfügung haben

Where the eye mixes Haben and have

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Haben
4 ch
have

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Haben is [ˈhaːbn̩] while have is [hæv]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Haben is recorded at frequency rank #50, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaːbn̩]. have is at rank #5,376, tagged as averb, pronounced [hæv].

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 5426, this pair ranks #1,994,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Haben vs have

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "Haben": bn. Private to "have": v.

"Haben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "have" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Habenahben · habben · habenn · habne · haebn · hbaen · hhaben
  • haveahve · haev · havve · hhave · hvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Haben" and "have" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Haben" is a noun and "have" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Haben" or "have"?
"Haben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #50 in our German list, against #5,376 for "have". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list