HirsevshouseTell them apart

Which to use

“Hirse” and “house” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,965
“Hirse” frequency rank
#4,210
“house” frequency rank
48175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hirse house
Definition Sammelbezeichnung für einige kleinfrüchtige Getreidearten aus der Familie der Süßgräser Wohnort des Menschen; Gebäude, das errichtet wurde, um in ihm zu wohnen

Where the eye mixes Hirse and house

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

5 ch
Hirse
5 ch
house

Look-alike desk: Hirse vs house

A purely visual mix-up. Hirse ([ˈhɪʁzə]) and house ([haʊs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hirse is recorded at frequency rank #43,965, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɪʁzə]. house is at rank #4,210, tagged as anoun, pronounced [haʊs].

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 48175, this pair ranks #1,258,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hirse vs house

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "Hirse": ir. Private to "house": ou.

"Hirse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "house" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hirsehhirse · hirrse · hirsse · hisre · hrise
  • househhouse · hosue · houes · housse · huose · ohuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hirse" and "house" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhɪʁzə] versus [haʊs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Hirse" or "house"?
"house" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,210 in our German list, against #43,965 for "Hirse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hirse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "house" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,258,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hirse" and "house" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hide vs Hirse". 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 #1,258,100 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