Which to use
“hear” and “heard” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,155
- “hear” frequency rank
- #35,826
- “heard” frequency rank
- 69981
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hear | heard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | hören; mit dem Gehör wahrnehmen | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs hear |
Where the eye mixes hear and heard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hear runs 4 letters (CVVC) against heard's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: hear vs heard
A purely visual mix-up. hear ([hɪə(ɹ)]) and heard ([hɜːd]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hear” sits inside “heard”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hear is recorded at frequency rank #34,155, classified as averb, pronounced [hɪə(ɹ)]. heard is at rank #35,826, tagged as averb, pronounced [hɜːd].
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 69981, this pair ranks #460,108 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hear vs heard
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hear": -. Private to "heard": d.
"hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hear" and "heard" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hear" or "heard"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #460,108 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hear" and "heard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hardi vs heard". 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 #460,108 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.