Which to use
“Hays” is a name and “he's” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,700
- “Hays” frequency rank
- #227
- “he's” frequency rank
- 22927
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Hays | he's |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname. | Contraction of he + is. |
Where the eye mixes Hays and he's
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: Hays vs he's
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hays is /heɪz/ while he's is /ˈhiːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Hays is recorded at frequency rank #22,700, classified as aname, pronounced /heɪz/. he's is at rank #227, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ˈhiːz/.
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 22927, this pair ranks #413,023 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Hays vs he's
Shared letters: hs. Private to "Hays": ay. Private to "he's": e.
"Hays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "he's" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Hays ← ahys · hasy · hayss · hayys · hhays · hyas
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Hays" for "he's" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Hays" or "he's"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Hays" and "he's" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Hays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "he's" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #413,023 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Hays" and "he's" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hayat vs Hays". 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 #413,023 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.