heardvsherWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,048
“heard” frequency rank
#13,484
“her” frequency rank
62532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heard her
Definition Pasado simple del verbo (to) hear. Ella.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set heard and her apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
heard
3 ch
her

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heard is /hɜːd/ while her is /ˈhɜː(ɹ)/ (tónico). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62532, 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/. 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 62532, this pair ranks #51,715 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of heard vs her

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "heard": ad. Private to "her": -.

"heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "her" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heardehard · haerd · headr · heardd · hearrd · herad · hheard

Frequency comparison

heard#49,048
her#13,484

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heard" and "her" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heard" is a verb and "her" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "heard" or "her"?
"her" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,484 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 her

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “heard”; for a pronoun, it's “her”.
  • 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