hartvshaveConfusable pair

Quick tell: hart is a adjective, have is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hart” is an adjective and “have” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,111
“hart” frequency rank
#5,376
“have” frequency rank
6487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hart have
Definition nur mit großem Kraftaufwand verformbar haben; besitzen; zur Verfügung haben

Where the eye mixes hart and have

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hart
4 ch
have

Visual trap between hart and have

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hart is [haʁt] while have is [hæv]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hart is recorded at frequency rank #1,111, classified as anadj, pronounced [haʁt]. have is at rank #5,376, tagged as averb, pronounced [hæv].

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 6487, this pair ranks #1,991,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hart vs have

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hart": rt. Private to "have": ev.

"hart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "have" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hartahrt · harrt · hartt · hatr · hhart · hrat
  • haveahve · haev · havve · hhave · hvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hart" for "have" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hart" is an adjective and "have" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hart" or "have"?
"hart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,111 in our German list, against #5,376 for "have". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "have" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,991,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hart" and "have" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs have". 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 #1,991,475 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