himvshinConfusable pair

Quick tell: him is a pronoun, hin is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#15,118
“him” frequency rank
#327
“hin” frequency rank
15445
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature him hin
Definition Personalpronomen 3. Person Maskulinum Singular Objektform: ihm, ihn drückt die Richtung zu einer bestimmten Stelle oder einem Zeitpunkt aus

Where the eye mixes him and hin

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

3 ch
him
3 ch
hin

Visual trap between him and hin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: him is [hɪm] while hin is [hɪn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “him” becomes n in “hin”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

him is recorded at frequency rank #15,118, classified as apron, pronounced [hɪm]. hin is at rank #327, tagged as anadv, pronounced [hɪn].

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 15445, this pair ranks #1,943,823 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of him vs hin

Shared letters: hi. Private to "him": m. Private to "hin": n.

"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "him" and "hin" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "him" is a pronoun and "hin" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "him" vs "hin" - which ranks higher?
"hin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #327 in our German list, against #15,118 for "him". 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 "him" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,943,823 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "him" and "hin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "him vs höh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,943,823 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