heavshearsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#44,248
“hea” frequency rank
#9,903
“hears” frequency rank
54151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hea hears
Definition Alternative spelling of hea'. third-person singular simple present indicative of hear

Letter map: hea vs hears

Shared letters muted; letters that set hea and hears apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
hea
5 ch
hears

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hea is anoun and hearsaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “hea” sits inside “hears”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hea is recorded at frequency rank #44,248, classified as anoun. 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 54151, this pair ranks #143,286 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hea vs hears

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hea": -. Private to "hears": rs.

"hea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "hears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hearsehars · haers · hearrs · hearss · heasr · heras · hhears

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hea" and "hears" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hea" is a noun and "hears" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hea" or "hears"?
"hears" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,903 in our English list, against #44,248 for "hea". 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