Which to use
“here's” is a contraction and “herpes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,307
- “here's” frequency rank
- #18,335
- “herpes” frequency rank
- 19642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | here's | herpes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction of here + is. | A viral infection, caused by Human alphaherpesvirus 1 and Human alphaherpesvirus 2, marked by painful, watery blisters in the skin or in the mucous membranes or on the genitals. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set here's and herpes apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: here's is /hɪɹz/ while herpes is /ˈhɜː(ɹ).piz/. 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 (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
here's is recorded at frequency rank #1,307, classified as acontraction, pronounced /hɪɹz/. herpes is at rank #18,335, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɜː(ɹ).piz/.
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 19642, this pair ranks #436,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of here's vs herpes
Shared letters: ehrs. Private to "here's": -. Private to "herpes": p.
"here's" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "herpes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- herpes ← ehrpes · hepres · hereps · herpess · herppes · herpse · herrpes · hherpes