HerdevshöreTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#12,505
“Herde” frequency rank
#2,115
“höre” frequency rank
14620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Herde höre
Definition Gruppe von meist größeren Säugetieren der gleichen Art, die im losen oder sozialisierten Verband (mit Ausbildung einer Rangordnung) leben; Gruppen von flugunfähigen Vögeln und Gruppen verschiedener Arten kommen ebenfalls in Herden vor 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hören

Where the eye mixes Herde and höre

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

5 ch
Herde
4 ch
höre

Look-alike desk: Herde vs höre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Herde is [ˈheːɐ̯də] while höre is [ˈhøːʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Herde is recorded at frequency rank #12,505, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːɐ̯də]. höre is at rank #2,115, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhøːʁə].

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 14620, this pair ranks #1,949,929 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Herde vs höre

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "Herde": d. Private to "höre": ö.

"Herde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "höre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Herdeehrde · hedre · herdde · hered · herrde · hherde · hrede

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Herde" and "höre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Herde" is a noun and "höre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Herde" or "höre"?
"höre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,115 in our German list, against #12,505 for "Herde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Herde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "höre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,949,929 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Herde" and "höre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hardi vs Herde". 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 #1,949,929 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