HisvshörTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,079
“His” frequency rank
#2,601
“hör” frequency rank
10680
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature His hör
Definition Ton mit 264 Hz und alle Töne im Oktavabstand dazu, um einen Halbton erhöhtes H 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hören

Where the eye mixes His and hör

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
His
3 ch
hör

Why the eye confuses His with hör

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: His is [hɪs] while hör is [høːɐ̯]. 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 10680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

His is recorded at frequency rank #8,079, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɪs]. hör is at rank #2,601, tagged as averb, pronounced [høːɐ̯].

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 10680, this pair ranks #1,973,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of His vs hör

Shared letters: h. Private to "His": is. Private to "hör": .

"His" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hör" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "His" and "hör" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "His" is a noun and "hör" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "His" vs "hör" - which ranks higher?
"hör" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,601 in our German list, against #8,079 for "His". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "His" and "hör" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "His" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hör" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,973,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "His" and "hör" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "His vs höh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,973,889 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