hauvshazeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,064
“hau” frequency rank
#49,774
“haze” frequency rank
56838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hau haze
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs hauen Atmosphäre, Wetter: sehr feine, weit verstreute feste oder flüssige Partikel in der Luft

Where the eye mixes hau and haze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hau runs 3 letters (CVV) against haze's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
hau
4 ch
haze

Visual trap between hau and haze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hau is [haʊ̯] while haze is [heɪz]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hau is recorded at frequency rank #7,064, classified as averb, pronounced [haʊ̯]. haze is at rank #49,774, tagged as anoun, pronounced [heɪz].

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 56838, this pair ranks #924,720 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hau vs haze

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hau": u. Private to "haze": ez.

"hau" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "haze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haze ← ahze · haez · hazze · hhaze · hzae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hau" and "haze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hau" is a verb and "haze" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hau" or "haze"?
"hau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,064 in our German list, against #49,774 for "haze". 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 "hau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "haze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #924,720 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hau" and "haze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs haze". 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 #924,720 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