haktvshartTell them apart

Quick tell: hakt is a verb, hart is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hakt” is a verb and “hart” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,583
“hakt” frequency rank
#1,111
“hart” frequency rank
33694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hakt hart
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs haken nur mit großem Kraftaufwand verformbar

Where the eye mixes hakt and hart

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

4 ch
hakt
4 ch
hart

Why the eye confuses hakt with hart

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hakt is [haːkt] while hart is [haʁt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “hakt” becomes r in “hart”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hakt is recorded at frequency rank #32,583, classified as averb, pronounced [haːkt]. hart is at rank #1,111, tagged as anadj, pronounced [haʁt].

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 33694, this pair ranks #1,680,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hakt vs hart

Shared letters: aht. Private to "hakt": k. Private to "hart": r.

"hakt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haktahkt · hakkt · haktt · hatk · hhakt · hkat
  • hartahrt · harrt · hartt · hatr · hhart · hrat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hakt" for "hart" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hakt" is a verb and "hart" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hakt" or "hart" show up more?
"hart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,111 in our German list, against #32,583 for "hakt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hakt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hart" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,680,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hakt" and "hart" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hakt 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 #1,680,110 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