Which to use
“hear” and “heard” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #588
- “hear” frequency rank
- #542
- “heard” frequency rank
- 1130
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hear | heard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To perceive sounds through the ear. | simple past and past participle of hear |
Where the eye mixes hear and heard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. hear (/ˈhɪə/) and heard (/ˈhɜːd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hear” sits inside “heard”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1130, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hear is recorded at frequency rank #588, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɪə/. heard is at rank #542, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɜːd/.
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 1130, this pair ranks #528,033 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hear vs heard
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hear": -. Private to "heard": d.
"hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC