hinvshisConfusable pair

Quick tell: hin is a noun, his is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hin” is a noun and “his” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,887
“hin” frequency rank
#34
“his” frequency rank
38921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hin his
Definition A former Hebrew liquid measure of volume (about 3.8 L). Belonging to him.

Where the eye mixes hin and his

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hin
3 ch
his

Why the eye confuses hin with his

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hin is /ˈhɪn/ while his is /ɪ̈z/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “hin” becomes s in “his”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hin is recorded at frequency rank #38,887, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɪn/. 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 38921, this pair ranks #281,478 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hin vs his

Shared letters: hi. Private to "hin": n. Private to "his": s.

"hin" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hin" for "his" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hin" is a noun and "his" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "hin" or "his" show up more?
"his" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34 in our English list, against #38,887 for "hin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hin" 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 #281,478 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hin" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "HIIT vs hin". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #281,478 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