harvsharmWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,383
“har” frequency rank
#46,723
“harm” frequency rank
83106
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature har harm
Definition dort körperlicher oder geistiger Schaden

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set har and harm apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
har
4 ch
harm

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: har is anadverb and harmanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “har” sits inside “harm”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83106, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

har is recorded at frequency rank #36,383, classified as anadv, pronounced [hɛaɹ]. harm is at rank #46,723, tagged as anoun, 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 83106, this pair ranks #145,541 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of har vs harm

Shared letters: ahr. Private to "har": -. Private to "harm": m.

"har" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "harm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • harmahrm · hamr · harmm · harrm · hharm · hram

Frequency comparison

har#36,383
harm#46,723

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "har" and "harm" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "har" is an adverb and "harm" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "har" or "harm"?
"har" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,383 in our German list, against #46,723 for "harm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering har vs harm

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “har”; for a noun, it's “harm”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “har” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list