hijo vs him, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hijo” is a noun and “him” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#327
“hijo” frequency rank: #23,444
“him” frequency rank: 23771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hijo	him
Definition	Individuo respecto a cualquiera de sus progenitores.	Él.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

hijo

3 ch

him

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hijo is [ˈixo] while him is /ˈhɪm/. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hijo is recorded at frequency rank #327, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈixo]. him is at rank #23,444, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈhɪm/.

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 23771, this pair ranks #244,233 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hijo vs him

Shared letters: hi. Private to "hijo": jo. Private to "him": m.

"hijo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "him" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

hijo ← hhijo · hijjo · hioj · hjio · ihjo

Frequency comparison

hijo#327

him#23,444

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hijo" and "him" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hijo" is a noun and "him" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "hijo" or "him"?

"hijo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #327 in our Spanish list, against #23,444 for "him". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering hijo vs him

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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