Which to use
“had” is a verb and “harm” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,906
- “had” frequency rank
- #46,723
- “harm” frequency rank
- 62629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | had | harm |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs have | körperlicher oder geistiger Schaden |
Letter map: had vs harm
Shared letters muted; letters that set had and harm apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: had vs harm
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: had is averb and harmanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62629, 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]. harm is at rank #46,723, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].
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 62629, this pair ranks #705,830 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of had vs harm
Shared letters: ah. Private to "had": d. Private to "harm": mr.
"had" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "harm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- harm ← ahrm · hamr · harmm · harrm · hharm · hram
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "had" and "harm" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "had" or "harm"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "had" and "harm".
- Full dictionary entry for "had" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "harm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #705,830 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "had" and "harm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harm 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 #705,830 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.