habtvshamWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#701
“habt” frequency rank
#10,294
“ham” frequency rank
10995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habt ham
Definition 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs haben äußerste Hautschicht bei Amphibien und Reptilien; Haut

Where the eye mixes habt and ham

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

4 ch
habt
3 ch
ham

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habt is [haːpt] while ham is [ˈhɑmˀ]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habt is recorded at frequency rank #701, classified as averb, pronounced [haːpt]. ham is at rank #10,294, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɑmˀ].

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 10995, this pair ranks #1,972,242 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habt vs ham

Shared letters: ah. Private to "habt": bt. Private to "ham": m.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habt" and "ham" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habt" is a verb and "ham" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habt" or "ham"?
"habt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #701 in our German list, against #10,294 for "ham". 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