Which to use
“him” is a pronoun and “his” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #82
- “him” frequency rank
- #34
- “his” frequency rank
- 116
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | him | his |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A masculine pronoun; he as a grammatical object. | Belonging to him. |
Where the eye mixes him and his
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: him vs his
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: him is /ˈhɪm/ while his is /ɪ̈z/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “him” becomes s in “his”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
him is recorded at frequency rank #82, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈhɪm/. 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 116, this pair ranks #529,862 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of him vs his
Shared letters: hi. Private to "him": m. Private to "his": s.
"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "him" and "his" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "him" or "his"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "him" 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 #529,862 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "him" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "HIIT vs him". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #529,862 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.