how
[haʊ]
The verdict
“how” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #4,899 in German word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #4,899
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - nach der Methode fragend
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | how |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | [haʊ] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #4,899 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “how” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for how is 3 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [haʊ]. Corpus data places it at rank #4,899 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for how, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "HP", "Hz", "Hut", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is how, spelled H-O-W.
Definition
- 1nach der Methode fragend
- 2nach einer Eigenschaft fragend
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
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Using “how”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is H-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [haʊ] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “HP” - see the side-by-side comparison. how vs HP
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.