Which to use
“he'd” is a contraction and “het” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,627
- “he'd” frequency rank
- #24,186
- “het” frequency rank
- 26813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | he'd | het |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction of he + had. | A heterosexual person. |
Where the eye mixes he'd and het
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: he'd is /hiːd/ while het is /hɛt/. 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 (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
he'd is recorded at frequency rank #2,627, classified as acontraction, pronounced /hiːd/. het is at rank #24,186, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɛt/.
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 26813, this pair ranks #383,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of he'd vs het
Shared letters: eh. Private to "he'd": d. Private to "het": t.
"he'd" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "het" · 3 letters · shape CVC