HansvshitsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#953
“Hans” frequency rank
#7,337
“hits” frequency rank
8290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hans hits
Definition Person männlichen Geschlechts 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hit

Letter map: Hans vs hits

Shared letters muted; letters that set Hans and hits apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Hans
4 ch
hits

Part-of-speech tell for Hans / hits

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Hans is anoun and hitsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hans is recorded at frequency rank #953, classified as anoun, pronounced [hans]. hits is at rank #7,337, tagged as averb, 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 8290, this pair ranks #1,984,870 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hans vs hits

Shared letters: hs. Private to "Hans": an. Private to "hits": it.

"Hans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hansahns · hanss · hasn · hhans · hnas
  • hitshhits · hist · hitss · hitts · ihts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hans" and "hits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hans" is a noun and "hits" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hans" or "hits"?
"Hans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #953 in our German list, against #7,337 for "hits". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Hans" and "hits". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,984,870 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hans" and "hits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hits 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 #1,984,870 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