HaienvshannTell them apart

Quick tell: Haien is a noun, hann is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Haien” is a noun and “hann” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,794
“Haien” frequency rank
#26,445
“hann” frequency rank
65239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Haien hann
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Hai Personalpronomen der 3. Person Maskulinum Singular im Nominativ: er

Where the eye mixes Haien and hann

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Haien runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against hann's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Haien
4 ch
hann

Visual trap between Haien and hann

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Haien is [ˈhaɪ̯ən] while hann is [hanː]. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Haien is recorded at frequency rank #38,794, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯ən]. hann is at rank #26,445, tagged as apron, pronounced [hanː].

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 65239, this pair ranks #613,749 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Haien vs hann

Shared letters: ahn. Private to "Haien": ei. Private to "hann": -.

"Haien" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "hann" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Haien ← ahien · haein · haienn · haine · hhaien · hiaen
  • hann ← ahnn · han · hhann · hnan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Haien" for "hann" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Haien" is a noun and "hann" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Haien" or "hann"?
"hann" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,445 in our German list, against #38,794 for "Haien". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Haien" and "hann" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Haien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hann" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #613,749 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Haien" and "hann" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Haien 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 #613,749 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