heardvsheartsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: heard is a verb, hearts is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“heard” is a verb and “hearts” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,048
“heard” frequency rank
#39,257
“hearts” frequency rank
88305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heard hearts
Definition Pasado simple del verbo (to) hear. Corazones.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set heard and hearts apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
heard
6 ch
hearts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heard is /hɜːd/ while hearts is [hɑːts]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heard is recorded at frequency rank #49,048, classified as averb, pronounced /hɜːd/. hearts is at rank #39,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɑːts].

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 88305, this pair ranks #3,857 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of heard vs hearts

Shared letters: aehr. Private to "heard": d. Private to "hearts": st.

"heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "hearts" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heardehard · haerd · headr · heardd · hearrd · herad · hheard
  • heartseharts · haerts · hearrts · hearst · heartss · heartts · heatrs · herats

Frequency comparison

heard#49,048
hearts#39,257

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heard" and "hearts" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heard" is a verb and "hearts" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "heard" or "hearts"?
"hearts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,257 in our Spanish list, against #49,048 for "heard". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering heard vs hearts

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list