habsvshobTell them apart

Quick tell: habs is a abbrev, hob is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“habs” is an abbrev and “hob” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,992
“habs” frequency rank
#5,380
“hob” frequency rank
10372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habs hob
Definition habe es 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs heben

Letter map: habs vs hob

Shared letters muted; letters that set habs and hob apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
habs
3 ch
hob

Role in the sentence - habs and hob

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: habs is anabbrev and hobaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habs is recorded at frequency rank #4,992, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. hob is at rank #5,380, tagged as averb, pronounced [hoːp].

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 10372, this pair ranks #1,975,473 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habs vs hob

Shared letters: bh. Private to "habs": as. Private to "hob": o.

"habs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hob" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habsahbs · habbs · habss · hasb · hbas · hhabs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habs" and "hob" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habs" is an abbrev and "hob" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habs" or "hob"?
"habs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,992 in our German list, against #5,380 for "hob". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "habs" vs "hob" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "habs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hob" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,975,473 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habs" and "hob" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habs vs puzzles". 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 #1,975,473 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list