harvshurtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,383
“har” frequency rank
#43,976
“hurt” frequency rank
80359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature har hurt
Definition dort 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs huren

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set har and hurt apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
har
4 ch
hurt

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: har is [hɛaɹ] while hurt is [huːɐ̯t]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80359, 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]. hurt is at rank #43,976, tagged as averb, pronounced [huːɐ̯t].

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 80359, this pair ranks #197,235 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of har vs hurt

Shared letters: hr. Private to "har": a. Private to "hurt": tu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hurthhurt · hrut · hurrt · hurtt · hutr · uhrt

Frequency comparison

har#36,383
hurt#43,976

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "har" and "hurt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "har" is an adverb and "hurt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "har" or "hurt"?
"har" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,383 in our German list, against #43,976 for "hurt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering har vs hurt

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “har”; for a verb, it's “hurt”.
  • 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