himvshoiTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#15,118
“him” frequency rank
#41,901
“hoi” frequency rank
57019
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature him hoi
Definition Personalpronomen 3. Person Maskulinum Singular Objektform: ihm, ihn Ausruf des (freudigen) Erstaunens

Where the eye mixes him and hoi

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

3 ch
him
3 ch
hoi

Look-alike desk: him vs hoi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: him is [hɪm] while hoi is [hɔɪ̯]. 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 (pronoun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57019, 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]. hoi is at rank #41,901, tagged as anintj, pronounced [hɔɪ̯].

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 57019, this pair ranks #917,660 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of him vs hoi

Shared letters: hi. Private to "him": m. Private to "hoi": o.

"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hoi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "him" for "hoi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "him" is a pronoun and "hoi" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "him" or "hoi" show up more?
"him" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,118 in our German list, against #41,901 for "hoi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "him" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hoi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #917,660 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "him" and "hoi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "höh vs hoi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #917,660 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