HafervsharWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Hafer is a noun, har is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hafer” is a noun and “har” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,339
“Hafer” frequency rank
#36,383
“har” frequency rank
63722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hafer har
Definition Getreideart, die über locker ausgebreitete oder zur Seite ausgerichtete Rispen verfügt dort

Where the eye mixes Hafer and har

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Hafer
3 ch
har

Look-alike desk: Hafer vs har

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hafer is [ˈhaːfɐ] while har is [hɛaɹ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63722, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hafer is recorded at frequency rank #27,339, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaːfɐ]. har is at rank #36,383, tagged as anadv, pronounced [hɛaɹ].

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 63722, this pair ranks #666,630 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hafer vs har

Shared letters: ahr. Private to "Hafer": ef. Private to "har": -.

"Hafer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "har" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Haferahfer · haefr · haferr · haffer · hfaer · hhafer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hafer" for "har" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hafer" is a noun and "har" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hafer" or "har"?
"Hafer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,339 in our German list, against #36,383 for "har". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hafer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "har" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #666,630 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hafer" and "har" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "har 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 #666,630 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