Which to use
“heel” is a noun and “het” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,960
- “heel” frequency rank
- #16,178
- “het” frequency rank
- 65138
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | het |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel | definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das |
Where the eye mixes heel and het
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses heel with het
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heel is [hiːl] 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 (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65138, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heel is recorded at frequency rank #48,960, classified as anoun, pronounced [hiːl]. 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 65138, this pair ranks #617,224 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs het
Shared letters: eh. Private to "heel": l. Private to "het": t.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "het" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- heel ← ehel · heell · hheel
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "heel" for "het" ever safe?
Which is more common, "heel" or "het"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "heel" 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 #617,224 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "het" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel 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 #617,224 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.