he

[ˈe]

/[ˈe]/ adv

The verdict

“he” is in the everyday core of Spanish, ranked #139 in Spanish word frequency and used as an adverb.

#139
frequency rank, Spanish
2
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Unido a un pronombre personal clítico ("me, te, le, nos, os, les") o a un adverbio de lugar ("aquí, allí, ahí", etc.), señala la presencia o existencia de algo.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

he vs Ho
0% similar
he vs hi
50% similar
he vs hoy
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for he
PropertyValue
Headwordhe
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechAdverb
IPA[ˈe]
Letters2
Frequency rank#139
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “he” sits in Spanish frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). he lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for he is 2 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈe]. Corpus data places it at rank #139 in overall Spanish word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Unido a un pronombre personal clítico ("me, te, le, nos, os, les") o a un adverbio de lugar ("aquí, allí, ahí", etc.), señala la presencia o existencia de algo.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for he in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Spanish patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ho", "hi", "hoy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Spanish form is he, spelled H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Unido a un pronombre personal clítico ("me, te, le, nos, os, les") o a un adverbio de lugar ("aquí, allí, ahí", etc.), señala la presencia o existencia de algo.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "he"?
"he" is spelled H-E. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈe].
What does "he" mean?
As an adverb, "he" means: Unido a un pronombre personal clítico ("me, te, le, nos, os, les") o a un adverbio de lugar ("aquí, allí, ahí", etc.), señala la presencia o existencia de algo.
What words are commonly confused with "he"?
"he" is commonly confused with "Ho", "hi", "hoy". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "he"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "he" is [ˈe]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "he" come from?
"he" is a Spanish word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “he”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct Spanish spelling is H-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [ˈe] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “Ho” - see the side-by-side comparison. he vs Ho
  • Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list