Which to use
“hard” and “harder” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #273
- “hard” frequency rank
- #2,626
- “harder” frequency rank
- 2899
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hard | harder |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Solid and firm. | comparative form of hard: more hard |
Where the eye mixes hard and harder
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. hard (/hɑːd/) and harder (/hɑːdə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “hard” sits inside “harder”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hard is recorded at frequency rank #273, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɑːd/. harder is at rank #2,626, tagged as anadj, pronounced /hɑːdə/.
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 2899, this pair ranks #523,708 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hard vs harder
Shared letters: adhr. Private to "hard": -. Private to "harder": e.
"hard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "harder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC