himvshocConfusable pair

Quick tell: him is a pronoun, hoc is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,444
“him” frequency rank
#22,043
“hoc” frequency rank
45487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature him hoc
Definition Él. Hacia aquí, hacia este lugar, en esta dirección.

Where the eye mixes him and hoc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
him
3 ch
hoc

Visual trap between him and hoc

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: him is /ˈhɪm/ while hoc is /ˈhoːk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45487, 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/. hoc is at rank #22,043, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈhoːk/.

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 45487, this pair ranks #131,180 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of him vs hoc

Shared letters: h. Private to "him": im. Private to "hoc": co.

"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hoc" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "him" and "hoc" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "him" is a pronoun and "hoc" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "him" or "hoc"?
"hoc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,043 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "him" and "hoc" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "him" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hoc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,180 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "him" and "hoc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "him vs hut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #131,180 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