hew vs how, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hew” is a verb and “how” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,513
“hew” frequency rank: #67
“how” frequency rank: 46580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hew	how
Definition	To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.	To what degree or extent.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hew and how apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

hew

3 ch

how

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hew is /hjuː/ while how is /haʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “hew” becomes o in “how”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hew is recorded at frequency rank #46,513, classified as averb, pronounced /hjuː/. how is at rank #67, tagged as anadv, pronounced /haʊ/.

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 46580, this pair ranks #210,406 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hew vs how

Shared letters: hw. Private to "hew": e. Private to "how": o.

"hew" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "how" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

hew#46,513

how#67

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hew" and "how" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hew" is a verb and "how" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "hew" or "how"?

"how" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #67 in our English list, against #46,513 for "hew". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering hew vs how

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “hew”; for an adverb, it's “how”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hew” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable