HerrvshurtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Herr is a name, hurt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Herr” is a name and “hurt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,537
“Herr” frequency rank
#1,224
“hurt” frequency rank
22761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Herr hurt
Definition A surname. To cause (a person or animal) physical pain and/or injury.

Letter map: Herr vs hurt

Shared letters muted; letters that set Herr and hurt apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Herr
4 ch
hurt

Role in the sentence - Herr and hurt

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Herr is aname and hurtaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Herr is recorded at frequency rank #21,537, classified as aname. hurt is at rank #1,224, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɜːt/.

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 22761, this pair ranks #414,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Herr vs hurt

Shared letters: hr. Private to "Herr": e. Private to "hurt": tu.

"Herr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hurt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Herrehrr · hherr · hrer
  • hurthhurt · hrut · hurrt · hurtt · hutr · uhrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Herr" and "hurt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Herr" is a name and "hurt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Herr" or "hurt" show up more?
"hurt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,224 in our English list, against #21,537 for "Herr". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Herr" and "hurt".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Herr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hurt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #414,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Herr" and "hurt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Herat vs Herr". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #414,209 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list