Which to use
“ham” is a noun and “his” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,885
- “ham” frequency rank
- #34
- “his” frequency rank
- 5919
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ham | his |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock. | Belonging to him. |
Where the eye mixes ham and his
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ham with his
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ham is /ˈhæm/ while his is /ɪ̈z/. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ham is recorded at frequency rank #5,885, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhæm/. his is at rank #34, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɪ̈z/.
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 5919, this pair ranks #513,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ham vs his
Shared letters: h. Private to "ham": am. Private to "his": is.
"ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ham" and "his" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ham" or "his"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #513,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ham" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ham vs hammy". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #513,508 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.