Which to use
“he'd” is a contraction and “hew” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,627
- “he'd” frequency rank
- #46,513
- “hew” frequency rank
- 49140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | he'd | hew |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction of he + had. | To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down. |
Where the eye mixes he'd and hew
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 hew is /hjuː/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49140, 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/. hew is at rank #46,513, tagged as averb, pronounced /hjuː/.
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 49140, this pair ranks #186,442 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of he'd vs hew
Shared letters: eh. Private to "he'd": d. Private to "hew": w.
"he'd" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hew" · 3 letters · shape CVC