Which to use
“he's” is a contraction and “hear” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,629
- “he's” frequency rank
- #41,395
- “hear” frequency rank
- 85024
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | he's | hear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contracción de he y is: "él es" o "él está". | Oír. |
Where the eye mixes he's and hear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. he's runs 3 letters (CVC) against hear's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: he's vs hear
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: he's is /hiːz/ while hear is /hɪə(ɹ)/. 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 (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85024, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
he's is recorded at frequency rank #43,629, classified as acontraction, pronounced /hiːz/. hear is at rank #41,395, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɪə(ɹ)/.
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 85024, this pair ranks #6,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of he's vs hear
Shared letters: eh. Private to "he's": s. Private to "hear": ar.
"he's" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hear ← ehar · hearr · hhear
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "he's" and "hear" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "he's" vs "hear" - which ranks higher?
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 "he's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "he's" and "hear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hear vs heard". 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 #6,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.