hegevsHerzWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hege is a verb, Herz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hege” is a verb and “Herz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,621
“hege” frequency rank
#794
“Herz” frequency rank
30415
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hege Herz
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hegen das Zentralorgan für den Blutkreislauf

Where the eye mixes hege and Herz

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

4 ch
hege
4 ch
Herz

Look-alike desk: hege vs Herz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hege is [ˈheːɡə] while Herz is [hɛʁt͡s]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hege is recorded at frequency rank #29,621, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈheːɡə]. Herz is at rank #794, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɛʁt͡s].

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 30415, this pair ranks #1,748,289 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hege vs Herz

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hege": g. Private to "Herz": rz.

"hege" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Herz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hegeehge · heeg · hegge · hgee · hhege
  • Herzehrz · herrz · herzz · hezr · hherz · hrez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hege" and "Herz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hege" is a verb and "Herz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hege" vs "Herz" - which ranks higher?
"Herz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #794 in our German list, against #29,621 for "hege". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hege" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Herz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,748,289 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hege" and "Herz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hege 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 #1,748,289 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