heivsHenriConfusable pair

Quick tell: hei is a intj, Henri is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hei” is an intj and “Henri” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,652
“hei” frequency rank
#11,671
“Henri” frequency rank
27323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hei Henri
Definition Ausruf der Freude, Begeisterung oder Verwunderung männlicher Vorname

Where the eye mixes hei and Henri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hei
5 ch
Henri

Why the eye confuses hei with Henri

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hei is [haɪ̯] while Henri is [ɑ̃ˑ.ri]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hei is recorded at frequency rank #15,652, classified as anintj, pronounced [haɪ̯]. Henri is at rank #11,671, tagged as aname, pronounced [ɑ̃ˑ.ri].

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 27323, this pair ranks #1,803,624 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hei vs Henri

Shared letters: ehi. Private to "hei": -. Private to "Henri": nr.

"hei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Henri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Henriehnri · henir · hennri · henrri · herni · hhenri · hneri

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hei" for "Henri" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hei" is an intj and "Henri" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hei" or "Henri" show up more?
"Henri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,671 in our German list, against #15,652 for "hei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Henri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,803,624 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hei" and "Henri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs hei". 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 #1,803,624 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