hejvsherWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hej is a intj, her is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hej” is an intj and “her” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,213
“hej” frequency rank
#477
“her” frequency rank
48690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hej her
Definition informelle Grußformel Bewegung in Richtung des Sprechenden von einem entfernteren Ort aus

Where the eye mixes hej and her

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hej
3 ch
her

Why the eye confuses hej with her

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hej is [haɪ] while her is [heːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - j in “hej” becomes r in “her”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hej is recorded at frequency rank #48,213, classified as anintj, pronounced [haɪ]. her is at rank #477, tagged as anadv, pronounced [heːɐ̯].

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 48690, this pair ranks #1,239,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hej vs her

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hej": j. Private to "her": r.

"hej" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "her" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hej" and "her" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hej" is an intj and "her" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hej" vs "her" - which ranks higher?
"her" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #477 in our German list, against #48,213 for "hej". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hej" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "her" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,239,262 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hej" and "her" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs hej". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,239,262 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