harevshearWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hare is a noun, hear is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hare” is a noun and “hear” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,584
“hare” frequency rank
#34,155
“hear” frequency rank
74739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hare hear
Definition der Hase hören; mit dem Gehör wahrnehmen

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
hare
4 ch
hear

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hare is anoun and hearaverb. On the page they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hare is recorded at frequency rank #40,584, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. hear is at rank #34,155, tagged as averb, pronounced [hɪə(ɹ)].

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 74739, this pair ranks #325,651 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hare vs hear

Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hare": -. Private to "hear": -.

"hare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hareahre · harre · hhare · hrae
  • hearehar · haer · hearr · hhear

Frequency comparison

hare#40,584
hear#34,155

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hare" and "hear" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hare" is a noun and "hear" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hare" or "hear"?
"hear" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,155 in our German list, against #40,584 for "hare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hare vs hear

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hare”; for a verb, it's “hear”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hare” 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