hamsvshisConfusable pair

Quick tell: hams is a noun, his is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hams” is a noun and “his” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,094
“hams” frequency rank
#34
“his” frequency rank
34128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hams his
Definition plural of ham Belonging to him.

Letter map: hams vs his

Shared letters muted; letters that set hams and his apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
hams
3 ch
his

Role in the sentence - hams and his

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hams is anoun and hisadeterminer. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hams is recorded at frequency rank #34,094, classified as anoun. 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 34128, this pair ranks #323,427 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hams vs his

Shared letters: hs. Private to "hams": am. Private to "his": i.

"hams" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hamsahms · hamms · hamss · hasm · hhams

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hams" and "his" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hams" is a noun and "his" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hams" vs "his" - which ranks higher?
"his" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34 in our English list, against #34,094 for "hams". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "hams" and "his". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hams" 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 #323,427 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hams" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hammy vs hams". 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 #323,427 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list