hvsherTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#991
“h” frequency rank
#13,484
“her” frequency rank
14475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature h her
Definition Octava letra del alfabeto español y sexta consonante. Su nombre es hache. Ella.

Where the eye mixes h and her

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

1 ch
h
3 ch
her

Visual trap between h and her

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: h is [ˈat͡ʃe] while her is /ˈhɜː(ɹ)/ (tónico). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “h” sits inside “her”, and the parts of speech differ too (character vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

h is recorded at frequency rank #991, classified as acharacter, pronounced [ˈat͡ʃe]. her is at rank #13,484, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈhɜː(ɹ)/ (tónico).

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 14475, this pair ranks #283,976 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of h vs her

Shared letters: h. Private to "h": -. Private to "her": er.

"h" · 1 letters · shape C  ·  "her" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "h" and "her" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "h" is a character and "her" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "h" or "her" show up more?
"h" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #991 in our Spanish list, against #13,484 for "her". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "h" and "her" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "h" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "her" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,976 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "h" and "her" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heard vs her". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #283,976 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