Which to use
“he” is an adverb and “hear” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #139
- “he” frequency rank
- #41,395
- “hear” frequency rank
- 41534
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | he | hear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Oír. |
Where the eye mixes he and hear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: he vs hear
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: he is [ˈe] while hear is /hɪə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “he” sits inside “hear”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
he is recorded at frequency rank #139, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈe]. 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 41534, this pair ranks #153,144 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of he vs hear
Shared letters: eh. Private to "he": -. Private to "hear": ar.
"he" · 2 letters · shape CV · "hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hear ← ehar · hearr · hhear
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "he" and "hear" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "he" vs "hear" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "he" 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 #153,144 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "he" 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 #153,144 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.