höhvsholaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: höh is a verb, hola is a phrase, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“höh” is a verb and “hola” is a phrase - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,239
“höh” frequency rank
#48,229
“hola” frequency rank
96468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature höh hola
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs höhen hallo

Letter map: höh vs hola

Shared letters muted; letters that set höh and hola apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. höh runs 3 letters (CVC) against hola's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
höh
4 ch
hola

Grammar separator: höh vs hola

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: höh is averb and holaaphrase. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

höh is recorded at frequency rank #48,239, classified as averb, pronounced [høː]. hola is at rank #48,229, tagged as aphrase, 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 96468, this pair ranks #7,196 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of höh vs hola

Shared letters: h. Private to "höh": ö. Private to "hola": alo.

"höh" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hola ← hhola · hloa · hoal · holla · ohla

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "höh" and "hola" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "höh" is a verb and "hola" a phrase, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "höh" or "hola" show up more?
"hola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48,229 in our German list, against #48,239 for "höh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "höh" vs "hola" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "höh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,196 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "höh" and "hola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hola 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 #7,196 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