hvshacheTell them apart

Quick tell: h is a character, hache is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“h” is a character and “hache” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#991
“h” frequency rank
#47,844
“hache” frequency rank
48835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature h hache
Definition Octava letra del alfabeto español y sexta consonante. Su nombre es hache. Nombre de la letra h.

Same sound, different letters: h vs hache

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter.

1 ch
h
5 ch
hache

Same sound, different spelling - h / hache

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: h and hache carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ˈat͡ʃe]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is acharacter, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 4 extra letter(s) - “h” sits inside “hache”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

h is recorded at frequency rank #991, classified as acharacter, pronounced [ˈat͡ʃe]. hache is at rank #47,844, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈat͡ʃe].

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 48835, this pair ranks #112,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of h vs hache

Shared letters: h. Private to "h": -. Private to "hache": ace.

"h" · 1 letters · shape C  ·  "hache" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hacheahche · hacche · haceh · hachhe · hahce · hcahe · hhache

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "h" for "hache" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "h" is a character and "hache" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "h" or "hache" show up more?
"h" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #991 in our Spanish list, against #47,844 for "hache". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "h" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hache" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "h" and "hache" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hache vs hucha". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #112,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list