harvsHerzWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,383
“har” frequency rank
#794
“Herz” frequency rank
37177
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature har Herz
Definition dort das Zentralorgan für den Blutkreislauf

Where the eye mixes har and Herz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. har runs 3 letters (CVC) against Herz's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
har
4 ch
Herz

Why the eye confuses har with Herz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: har is [hɛaɹ] while Herz is [hɛʁt͡s]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37177, 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]. Herz is at rank #794, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɛʁt͡s].

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 37177, this pair ranks #1,596,867 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of har vs Herz

Shared letters: hr. Private to "har": a. Private to "Herz": ez.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Herzehrz · herrz · herzz · hezr · hherz · hrez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "har" for "Herz" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "har" is an adverb and "Herz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "har" or "Herz" show up more?
"Herz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #794 in our German list, against #36,383 for "har". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "har" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Herz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,596,867 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "har" and "Herz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "har 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 #1,596,867 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