Which to use
“his” is a determiner and “hon” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34
- “his” frequency rank
- #8,436
- “hon” frequency rank
- 8470
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | his | hon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Belonging to him. | A term of endearment; Honey, sweetheart |
Where the eye mixes his and hon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses his with hon
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: his is /ɪ̈z/ while hon is /hʌn/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
his is recorded at frequency rank #34, classified as adet, pronounced /ɪ̈z/. hon is at rank #8,436, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌn/.
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 8470, this pair ranks #502,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of his vs hon
Shared letters: h. Private to "his": is. Private to "hon": no.
"his" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hon" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "his" for "hon" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "his" or "hon" show up more?
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 "his" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #502,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "his" and "hon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs hon". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #502,323 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.