hauvsHoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,064
“hau” frequency rank
#7,191
“Ho” frequency rank
14255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hau Ho
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs hauen Stadt in Ghana

Letter map: hau vs Ho

Shared letters muted; letters that set hau and Ho apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
hau
2 ch
Ho

Part-of-speech tell for hau / Ho

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hau is averb and Hoaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14255, 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]. Ho is at rank #7,191, tagged as aname, pronounced […].

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 14255, this pair ranks #1,952,501 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hau vs Ho

Shared letters: h. Private to "hau": au. Private to "Ho": o.

"hau" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Ho" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hau" and "Ho" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hau" is a verb and "Ho" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hau" or "Ho" show up more?
"hau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,064 in our German list, against #7,191 for "Ho". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "hau" vs "Ho" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,952,501 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hau" and "Ho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ho vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,952,501 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