härtenvsHavenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,493
“härten” frequency rank
#25,587
“Haven” frequency rank
73080
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature härten Haven
Definition transitiv: Hafen

Letter map: härten vs Haven

Shared letters muted; letters that set härten and Haven apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. härten runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Haven's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
härten
5 ch
Haven

Role in the sentence - härten and Haven

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: härten is averb and Havenanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

härten is recorded at frequency rank #47,493, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhɛʁtn̩]. Haven is at rank #25,587, tagged as anoun.

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 73080, this pair ranks #370,300 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of härten vs Haven

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "härten": rtä. Private to "Haven": av.

"härten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Haven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Haven ← ahven · haevn · havenn · havne · havven · hhaven · hvaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "härten" and "Haven" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "härten" is a verb and "Haven" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "härten" or "Haven" show up more?
"Haven" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,587 in our German list, against #47,493 for "härten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "härten" and "Haven".

  • Full dictionary entry for "härten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Haven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #370,300 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "härten" and "Haven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harren vs härten". 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 #370,300 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