Which to use
“hers” is a pronoun and “his” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,460
- “hers” frequency rank
- #34
- “his” frequency rank
- 7494
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hers | his |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That or those belonging to her; the possessive case of she, used without a following noun. | Belonging to him. |
Where the eye mixes hers and his
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses hers with his
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hers is /ˈhɜːz/ while his is /ɪ̈z/. 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 (pronoun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hers is recorded at frequency rank #7,460, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈhɜːz/. his is at rank #34, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɪ̈z/.
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 7494, this pair ranks #506,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hers vs his
Shared letters: hs. Private to "hers": er. Private to "his": i.
"hers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hers ← ehrs · herrs · herss · hesr · hhers · hres
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hers" and "his" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hers" vs "his" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #506,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hers" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Herat vs hers". 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 #506,859 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.