hartvshavWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hart is a noun, hav is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hart” is a noun and “hav” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,692
“hart” frequency rank
#34,516
“hav” frequency rank
41208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hart hav
Definition A male deer, especially the male of the red deer after his fifth year. Informal spelling of have.

Letter map: hart vs hav

Shared letters muted; letters that set hart and hav apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
hart
3 ch
hav

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hart is anoun and havaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hart is recorded at frequency rank #6,692, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɑːt/. hav is at rank #34,516, tagged as averb.

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 41208, this pair ranks #260,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hart vs hav

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hart": rt. Private to "hav": v.

"hart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hav" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hartahrt · harrt · hartt · hatr · hhart · hrat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hart" and "hav" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hart" is a noun and "hav" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hart" or "hav"?
"hart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,692 in our English list, against #34,516 for "hav". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list