he'svshellsConfusable pair

Quick tell: he's is a abbrev, hells is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“he's” is an abbrev and “hells” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,620
“he's” frequency rank
#34,160
“hells” frequency rank
63780
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature he's hells
Definition he is: er ist Plural des Substantivs hell

Letter map: he's vs hells

Shared letters muted; letters that set he's and hells apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
he's
5 ch
hells

Role in the sentence - he's and hells

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: he's is anabbrev and hellsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63780, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

he's is recorded at frequency rank #29,620, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. hells is at rank #34,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɛlz].

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 63780, this pair ranks #664,645 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of he's vs hells

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "he's": -. Private to "hells": l.

"he's" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hellsehlls · hellss · helsl · hhells · hlels

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "he's" and "hells" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "he's" is an abbrev and "hells" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "he's" or "hells"?
"he's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,620 in our German list, against #34,160 for "hells". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "he's" and "hells".

  • Full dictionary entry for "he's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hells" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #664,645 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "he's" and "hells" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs hells". 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 #664,645 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