himvshisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“him” and “his” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,444
“him” frequency rank
#13,485
“his” frequency rank
36929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature him his
Definition Él. (de él) Su , sus, suyo, suya, suyos, suyas.

Where the eye mixes him and his

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
him
3 ch
his

Look-alike desk: him vs his

A purely visual mix-up. him (/ˈhɪm/) and his (/ˈhɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - m in “him” becomes s in “his”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

him is recorded at frequency rank #23,444, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈhɪm/. his is at rank #13,485, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈhɪz/.

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 36929, this pair ranks #178,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of him vs his

Shared letters: hi. Private to "him": m. Private to "his": s.

"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "him" and "his" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈhɪm/ versus /ˈhɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "him" or "his"?
"his" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,485 in our Spanish list, against #23,444 for "him". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "him" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "him" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "him vs hut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #178,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list