hebtvsheilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hebt is a verb, heil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hebt” is a verb and “heil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,377
“hebt” frequency rank
#4,208
“heil” frequency rank
9585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hebt heil
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs heben nicht zerbrochen; unversehrt; nicht verletzt

Where the eye mixes hebt and heil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hebt (CVCC) and heil (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
hebt
4 ch
heil

Look-alike desk: hebt vs heil

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hebt is [heːpt] while heil is [haɪ̯l]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hebt is recorded at frequency rank #5,377, classified as averb, pronounced [heːpt]. heil is at rank #4,208, tagged as anadj, pronounced [haɪ̯l].

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 9585, this pair ranks #1,979,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hebt vs heil

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hebt": bt. Private to "heil": il.

"hebt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "heil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hebtehbt · hbet · hebbt · hebtt · hetb · hhebt
  • heilehil · heill · hheil · hiel

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hebt" and "heil" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hebt" is a verb and "heil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hebt" vs "heil" - which ranks higher?
"heil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,208 in our German list, against #5,377 for "hebt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hebt" and "heil" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hebt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,979,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hebt" and "heil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hebt vs heel". 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 #1,979,262 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