he'svsheutWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: he's is a abbrev, heut is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#29,620
“he's” frequency rank
#5,604
“heut” frequency rank
35224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature he's heut
Definition he is: er ist an diesem Tage

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set he's and heut apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
he's
4 ch
heut

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: he's is anabbrev and heutanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35224, 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 […]. heut is at rank #5,604, tagged as anadv, pronounced [hɔɪ̯t].

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 35224, this pair ranks #1,645,043 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of he's vs heut

Shared letters: eh. Private to "he's": s. Private to "heut": tu.

"he's" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "heut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heutehut · hetu · heutt · hheut · huet

Frequency comparison

he's#29,620
heut#5,604

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "he's" and "heut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "he's" is an abbrev and "heut" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "he's" or "heut"?
"heut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,604 in our German list, against #29,620 for "he's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering he's vs heut

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an abbrev, it's “he's”; for an adverb, it's “heut”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “he's” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list