het

[(h)ət]

/[(h)ət]/ det

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“het” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,178) as a determiner. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#16,178
frequency rank, German
3,372
“H” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das

Corpus desk

Index DE-het · het · German

het · rank #16,178 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #16,178
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,372
  • PHOTO-FINISH Herder

Nearest frequency peer: Herder (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „het“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „het“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

het vs hi
33% similar
het vs hm
33% similar
het vs hl
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for het
PropertyValue
Headwordhet
LanguageGerman
Part of speechDeterminer
IPA[(h)ət]
Letters3
Frequency rank#16,178
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „het“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).hetliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Herder“ (#16,177), „Hudson“ (#16,179), „herausragenden“ (#16,176). Unter 3,372 „H“-Lemmata liegt „het“ bei #16,178. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for het is neighbouring look-alikes ("hi", "hm", …), not just typos; it is adeterminer pronounced [(h)ət]. Frequency #16,178 among 3,372 “H” headwords. Gloss: "definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for het, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hi", "hm", "hl", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is het, spelled H-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "het"?
"het" is spelled H-E-T. The IPA pronunciation is [(h)ət].
What does "het" mean?
As a determiner, "het" means: definiter (bestimmter) Artikel neutrum; das
What words are commonly confused with "het"?
"het" is commonly confused with "hi", "hm", "hl". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "het"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "het" is [(h)ət]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "het" come from?
"het" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "het", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ick#16,183lau#16,210eve#16,139mbH#16,218

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list