hadvshamaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#15,906
“had” frequency rank
#44,666
“hama” frequency rank
60572
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature had hama
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs have Eimer, Schüssel

Letter map: had vs hama

Shared letters muted; letters that set had and hama apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
had
4 ch
hama

Grammar separator: had vs hama

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: had is averb and hamaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

had is recorded at frequency rank #15,906, classified as averb, pronounced [hæd]. hama is at rank #44,666, tagged as anoun.

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 60572, this pair ranks #781,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of had vs hama

Shared letters: ah. Private to "had": d. Private to "hama": m.

"had" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hamaahma · haam · hamma · hhama · hmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "had" for "hama" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "had" is a verb and "hama" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "had" vs "hama" - which ranks higher?
"had" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,906 in our German list, against #44,666 for "hama". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "had" and "hama".

  • Full dictionary entry for "had" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #781,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "had" and "hama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hama 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

Confusion rank #781,971 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