hegtevsherbeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,210
“hegte” frequency rank
#32,086
“herbe” frequency rank
80296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hegte herbe
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs hegen Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs herb

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hegte and herbe apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
hegte
5 ch
herbe

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hegte is [ˈheːktə] while herbe is [ˈhɛʁbə]. 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 80296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hegte is recorded at frequency rank #48,210, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈheːktə]. herbe is at rank #32,086, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɛʁbə].

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 80296, this pair ranks #198,537 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hegte vs herbe

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hegte": gt. Private to "herbe": br.

"hegte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "herbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hegteehgte · heget · heggte · hegtte · hetge · hgete · hhegte
  • herbeehrbe · hebre · herbbe · hereb · herrbe · hherbe · hrebe

Frequency comparison

hegte#48,210
herbe#32,086

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hegte" and "herbe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hegte" is a verb and "herbe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hegte" or "herbe"?
"herbe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,086 in our German list, against #48,210 for "hegte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hegte vs herbe

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “hegte”; for an adjective, it's “herbe”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hegte” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list