# er vs et

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### er
*intj · IPA /ɜː/ · frequency rank #4,756*
Said when hesitating in speech.

### et
*verb · IPA /ɛt/ · frequency rank #2,200*
Pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/er-vs-et