Which to use
“hard” is an adjective and “heart” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #273
- “hard” frequency rank
- #491
- “heart” frequency rank
- 764
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hard | heart |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Solid and firm. | A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion. |
Where the eye mixes hard and heart
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hard is /hɑːd/ while heart is /hɑːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hard is recorded at frequency rank #273, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɑːd/. heart is at rank #491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɑːt/.
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 764, this pair ranks #528,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hard vs heart
Shared letters: ahr. Private to "hard": d. Private to "heart": et.
"hard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "heart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC