HirnvshitsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,997
“Hirn” frequency rank
#7,337
“hits” frequency rank
12334
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hirn hits
Definition Gehirn 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hit

Letter map: Hirn vs hits

Shared letters muted; letters that set Hirn and hits apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Hirn and hits follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Hirn
4 ch
hits

Role in the sentence - Hirn and hits

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Hirn is anoun and hitsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hirn is recorded at frequency rank #4,997, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɪʁn]. hits is at rank #7,337, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 12334, this pair ranks #1,964,790 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hirn vs hits

Shared letters: hi. Private to "Hirn": nr. Private to "hits": st.

"Hirn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hirn ← hhirn · hinr · hirnn · hirrn · hrin · ihrn
  • hits ← hhits · hist · hitss · hitts · ihts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hirn" and "hits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hirn" is a noun and "hits" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hirn" or "hits"?
"Hirn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,997 in our German list, against #7,337 for "hits". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Hirn" and "hits".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hirn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,964,790 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hirn" and "hits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hits vs puzzles". 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 #1,964,790 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