havevsholeConfusable pair

Which to use

“have” and “hole” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,376
“have” frequency rank
#7,486
“hole” frequency rank
12862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature have hole
Definition haben; besitzen; zur Verfügung haben 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs holen

Where the eye mixes have and hole

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

4 ch
have
4 ch
hole

Look-alike desk: have vs hole

A purely visual mix-up. have ([hæv]) and hole ([ˈhoːlə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

have is recorded at frequency rank #5,376, classified as averb, pronounced [hæv]. hole is at rank #7,486, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhoːlə].

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 12862, this pair ranks #1,961,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of have vs hole

Shared letters: eh. Private to "have": av. Private to "hole": lo.

"have" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haveahve · haev · havve · hhave · hvae
  • holehhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "have" and "hole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([hæv] versus [ˈhoːlə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "have" vs "hole" - which ranks higher?
"have" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,376 in our German list, against #7,486 for "hole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "have" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,961,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "have" and "hole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haze vs hole". 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 #1,961,579 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