harvsHorbConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#36,383
“har” frequency rank
#36,405
“Horb” frequency rank
72788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature har Horb
Definition dort eine Stadt in Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland

Where the eye mixes har and Horb

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

3 ch
har
4 ch
Horb

Why the eye confuses har with Horb

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: har is [hɛaɹ] while Horb is [hɔʁp]. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72788, 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]. Horb is at rank #36,405, tagged as aname, pronounced [hɔʁp].

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 72788, this pair ranks #378,523 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of har vs Horb

Shared letters: hr. Private to "har": a. Private to "Horb": bo.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Horb ← hhorb · hobr · horbb · horrb · hrob · ohrb

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "har" for "Horb" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "har" is an adverb and "Horb" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "har" vs "Horb" - which ranks higher?
"har" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,383 in our German list, against #36,405 for "Horb". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "har" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Horb" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #378,523 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "har" and "Horb" 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 #378,523 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