harryvsHarrysWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,258
“harry” frequency rank
#44,671
“Harrys” frequency rank
47929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature harry Harrys
Definition [wiederholt] belästigen, bedrängen, quälen, stressen Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Harry

Letter map: harry vs Harrys

Shared letters muted; letters that set harry and Harrys apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. harry runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Harrys's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
harry
6 ch
Harrys

Role in the sentence - harry and Harrys

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: harry is averb and Harrysanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “harry” sits inside “Harrys”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

harry is recorded at frequency rank #3,258, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Harrys is at rank #44,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaʁis].

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 47929, this pair ranks #1,266,957 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of harry vs Harrys

Shared letters: ahry. Private to "harry": -. Private to "Harrys": s.

"harry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Harrys" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • harry ← ahrry · harryy · hary · haryr · hharry · hrary
  • Harrys ← ahrrys · harrsy · harryss · harryys · haryrs · harys · hharrys · hrarys

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "harry" for "Harrys" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "harry" is a verb and "Harrys" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "harry" or "Harrys" show up more?
"harry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,258 in our German list, against #44,671 for "Harrys". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "harry" vs "Harrys" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "harry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Harrys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,266,957 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "harry" and "Harrys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harren vs Harrys". 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 #1,266,957 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