habtvshadWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“habt” and “had” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#701
“habt” frequency rank
#15,906
“had” frequency rank
16607
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habt had
Definition 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs haben Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs have

Where the eye mixes habt and had

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

4 ch
habt
3 ch
had

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. habt ([haːpt]) and had ([hæd]) 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 16607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habt is recorded at frequency rank #701, classified as averb, pronounced [haːpt]. had is at rank #15,906, tagged as averb, pronounced [hæd].

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 16607, this pair ranks #1,934,443 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habt vs had

Shared letters: ah. Private to "habt": bt. Private to "had": d.

"habt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "had" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habtahbt · habbt · habtt · hatb · hbat · hhabt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habt" and "had" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([haːpt] versus [hæd]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "habt" or "had"?
"habt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #701 in our German list, against #15,906 for "had". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "habt" and "had". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "habt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "had" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,934,443 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habt" and "had" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "had vs haze". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list