Which to use
“harsh” is an adjective and “hears” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,687
- “harsh” frequency rank
- #9,903
- “hears” frequency rank
- 15590
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harsh | hears |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses. | third-person singular simple present indicative of hear |
Where the eye mixes harsh and hears
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: harsh is /hɑɹʃ/ while hears is /hɪə(ɹ)z/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harsh is recorded at frequency rank #5,687, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɑɹʃ/. hears is at rank #9,903, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɪə(ɹ)z/.
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 15590, this pair ranks #463,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of harsh vs hears
Shared letters: ahrs. Private to "harsh": -. Private to "hears": e.
"harsh" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "hears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC