Which to use
“hard” is an adjective and “Hirn” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,386
- “hard” frequency rank
- #4,997
- “Hirn” frequency rank
- 13383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hard | Hirn |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | hart, fest | Gehirn |
Where the eye mixes hard and Hirn
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hard and Hirn follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses hard with Hirn
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hard is [hɑː(ɹ)d] while Hirn is [hɪʁn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hard is recorded at frequency rank #8,386, classified as anadj, pronounced [hɑː(ɹ)d]. Hirn is at rank #4,997, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɪʁn].
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 13383, this pair ranks #1,958,352 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hard vs Hirn
Shared letters: hr. Private to "hard": ad. Private to "Hirn": in.
"hard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Hirn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hard" and "Hirn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "hard" or "Hirn" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hard" and "Hirn" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Hirn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,958,352 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hard" and "Hirn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hard 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 #1,958,352 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.