HirtvshöreConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#31,614
“Hirt” frequency rank
#2,115
“höre” frequency rank
33729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hirt höre
Definition Hüter einer Herde 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hören

Where the eye mixes Hirt and höre

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

4 ch
Hirt
4 ch
höre

Visual trap between Hirt and höre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hirt is [hɪʁt] while höre is [ˈhøːʁə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33729, 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]. höre is at rank #2,115, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhøːʁə].

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 33729, this pair ranks #1,679,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hirt vs höre

Shared letters: hr. Private to "Hirt": it. Private to "höre": .

"Hirt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "höre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hirt" and "höre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hirt" is a noun and "höre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Hirt" or "höre"?
"höre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,115 in our German list, against #31,614 for "Hirt". 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 "Hirt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "höre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,679,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hirt" and "höre" 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 #1,679,394 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