Which to use
“hear” is a verb and “het” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,155
- “hear” frequency rank
- #16,178
- “het” frequency rank
- 50333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hear | het |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | hören; mit dem Gehör wahrnehmen | definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das |
Where the eye mixes hear and het
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: hear vs het
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hear is [hɪə(ɹ)] while het is [(h)ət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50333, 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)]. het is at rank #16,178, tagged as adet, pronounced [(h)ət].
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 50333, this pair ranks #1,177,703 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hear vs het
Shared letters: eh. Private to "hear": ar. Private to "het": t.
"hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "het" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hear ← ehar · haer · hearr · hhear
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hear" for "het" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hear" vs "het" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "hear" and "het" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "het" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,177,703 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hear" and "het" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hear vs Hemer". 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 #1,177,703 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.