HahnvshastWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,046
“Hahn” frequency rank
#165
“hast” frequency rank
4211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hahn hast
Definition das männliche Tier verschiedener Vogelarten 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs haben

Where the eye mixes Hahn and hast

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

4 ch
Hahn
4 ch
hast

Visual trap between Hahn and hast

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hahn is [haːn] while hast is [hast]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hahn is recorded at frequency rank #4,046, classified as anoun, pronounced [haːn]. hast is at rank #165, tagged as averb, pronounced [hast].

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 4211, this pair ranks #1,998,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hahn vs hast

Shared letters: ah. Private to "Hahn": n. Private to "hast": st.

"Hahn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hahnahhn · hahhn · hahnn · hanh · hhahn · hhan
  • hastahst · hastt · hhast · hsat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hahn" for "hast" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hahn" is a noun and "hast" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hahn" or "hast"?
"hast" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #165 in our German list, against #4,046 for "Hahn". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hahn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hast" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,998,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hahn" and "hast" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hahn vs Hähne". 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 #1,998,301 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