he's vs help, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“he's” is a contraction and “help” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,629
“he's” frequency rank: #16,609
“help” frequency rank: 60238
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	he's	help
Definition	Contracción de he y is: "él es" o "él está".	Ayuda.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set he's and help apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

he's

4 ch

help

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: he's is /hiːz/ while help is /hɛlp/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60238, 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/. help is at rank #16,609, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɛlp/.

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 60238, this pair ranks #59,651 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of he's vs help

Shared letters: eh. Private to "he's": s. Private to "help": lp.

"he's" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "help" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

help ← ehlp · hellp · helpp · hepl · hhelp · hlep

Frequency comparison

he's#43,629

help#16,609

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "he's" and "help" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "he's" is a contraction and "help" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "he's" or "help"?

"help" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,609 in our Spanish list, against #43,629 for "he's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering he's vs help

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a contraction, it's “he's”; for a noun, it's “help”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “he's” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable