harevshegeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#40,584
“hare” frequency rank
#29,621
“hege” frequency rank
70205
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hare hege
Definition der Hase 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hegen

Letter map: hare vs hege

Shared letters muted; letters that set hare and hege apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. hare and hege follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
hare
4 ch
hege

Grammar separator: hare vs hege

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hare is anoun and hegeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hare is recorded at frequency rank #40,584, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. hege is at rank #29,621, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈheːɡə].

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 70205, this pair ranks #453,338 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hare vs hege

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hare": ar. Private to "hege": g.

"hare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hege" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hare ← ahre · harre · hhare · hrae
  • hege ← ehge · heeg · hegge · hgee · hhege

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hare" and "hege" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hare" is a noun and "hege" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hare" or "hege" show up more?
"hege" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,621 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.

After this comparison

Pair "hare" vs "hege" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hege" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #453,338 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hare" and "hege" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hare vs puzzles". 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 #453,338 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