habtvshetWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#701
“habt” frequency rank
#16,178
“het” frequency rank
16879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habt het
Definition 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs haben definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das

Where the eye mixes habt and het

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

4 ch
habt
3 ch
het

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habt is [haːpt] while het is [(h)ət]. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habt is recorded at frequency rank #701, classified as averb, pronounced [haːpt]. het is at rank #16,178, tagged as adet, pronounced [(h)ət].

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 16879, this pair ranks #1,932,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habt vs het

Shared letters: ht. Private to "habt": ab. Private to "het": e.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habt" and "het" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habt" is a verb and "het" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habt" or "het"?
"habt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #701 in our German list, against #16,178 for "het". 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