her
/ˈhɜː/determiner, pronoun, noun
her is spelled H-E-R: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1,995 times per million words in written English, the 60th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a determiner, her means “Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in her?
| Letters | 3: H-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1,995 times per million words; the 60th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is her?
Her appears 1,995 times per million words in written English, the 60th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce her?
- UK /ˈhɜː/
- UK /ɜː/
- UK /hə/
Her has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-her.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with her?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as her from its last stressed vowel (/ɜ/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: reh.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of her
- herė
- hor
- hers plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does her mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
determiner
- 1
Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc).
This is her book
- 2
Belonging to a person of unspecified gender (to counterbalance the traditional "his" in this sense).
pronoun
- 1
The form of she used after a preposition, as the object of a verb, or (colloquial) as a subject with a conjunction; that woman, that ship, etc, or (dialect) as a subject without a conjunction.
Give it to her (after preposition)
noun
- 1
informalA female person or animal.
I think this bird is a him, but it may be a her.
pronoun
- 1
Honorific alternative letter-case form of her, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Her in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | son, sa, ses , lui, la |
| German | ihr, ihre , sie, es, ihm |
| Portuguese | seu, dela , ela |
| Spanish | su , le, la |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does her come from?
From Middle English here, hir, hire, from Old English hire (“her”), from Proto-Germanic *hezōi (dative singular of *hijō).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).