hejvshimWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hej is a intj, him is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#48,213
“hej” frequency rank
#15,118
“him” frequency rank
63331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hej him
Definition informelle Grußformel Personalpronomen 3. Person Maskulinum Singular Objektform: ihm, ihn

Where the eye mixes hej and him

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
hej
3 ch
him

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hej is [haɪ] while him is [hɪm]. 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 (intj vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63331, 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]. him is at rank #15,118, tagged as apron, pronounced [hɪm].

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 63331, this pair ranks #680,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hej vs him

Shared letters: h. Private to "hej": ej. Private to "him": im.

"hej" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "him" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hej" and "him" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hej" is an intj and "him" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hej" or "him"?
"him" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,118 in our German list, against #48,213 for "hej". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list