harevsherbeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hare is a noun, herbe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#40,584
“hare” frequency rank
#32,086
“herbe” frequency rank
72670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hare herbe
Definition der Hase Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs herb

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
hare
5 ch
herbe

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hare is anoun and herbeanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hare is recorded at frequency rank #40,584, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. herbe is at rank #32,086, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɛʁbə].

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 72670, this pair ranks #381,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hare vs herbe

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "hare": a. Private to "herbe": b.

"hare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "herbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hareahre · harre · hhare · hrae
  • herbeehrbe · hebre · herbbe · hereb · herrbe · hherbe · hrebe

Frequency comparison

hare#40,584
herbe#32,086

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hare" and "herbe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hare" is a noun and "herbe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hare" or "herbe"?
"herbe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,086 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 herbe

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hare”; for an adjective, it's “herbe”.
  • 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