HirtvsHisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,614
“Hirt” frequency rank
#8,079
“His” frequency rank
39693
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hirt His
Definition Hüter einer Herde Ton mit 264 Hz und alle Töne im Oktavabstand dazu, um einen Halbton erhöhtes H

Where the eye mixes Hirt and His

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

4 ch
Hirt
3 ch
His

Why the eye confuses Hirt with His

A purely visual mix-up. Hirt ([hɪʁt]) and His ([hɪs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hirt is recorded at frequency rank #31,614, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɪʁt]. His is at rank #8,079, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɪs].

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 39693, this pair ranks #1,529,575 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hirt vs His

Shared letters: hi. Private to "Hirt": rt. Private to "His": s.

"Hirt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "His" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hirthhirt · hirrt · hirtt · hitr · hrit · ihrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hirt" and "His" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([hɪʁt] versus [hɪs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Hirt" or "His"?
"His" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,079 in our German list, against #31,614 for "Hirt". 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 "Hirt" and "His" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hirt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "His" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,529,575 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hirt" and "His" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hide vs Hirt". 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 #1,529,575 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