hes vs hit, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hes” is a determiner and “hit” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,568
“hes” frequency rank: #421
“hit” frequency rank: 7989
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hes	hit
Definition	Alternative form of his when pronounced as he's; belonging to him.	To strike.

Where the eye mixes hes and hit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

hes

3 ch

hit

Look-alike desk: hes vs hit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hes is /hiːz/ while hit is /hɪt/. 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 (determiner vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7989, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hes is recorded at frequency rank #7,568, classified as adet, pronounced /hiːz/. hit is at rank #421, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɪt/.

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 7989, this pair ranks #504,628 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hes vs hit

Shared letters: h. Private to "hes": es. Private to "hit": it.

"hes" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hes" for "hit" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hes" is a determiner and "hit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary English text, does "hes" or "hit" show up more?

"hit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #421 in our English list, against #7,568 for "hes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hes" and "hit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "hes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #504,628 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"hes" and "hit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hes vs HRW". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #504,628 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.