hitvshoyTell them apart

Quick tell: hit is a noun, hoy is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hit” is a noun and “hoy” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,612
“hit” frequency rank
#149
“hoy” frequency rank
14761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hit hoy
Definition Obra musical muy popular y exitosa. En el día en curso.

Where the eye mixes hit and hoy

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

3 ch
hit
3 ch
hoy

Visual trap between hit and hoy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hit is [ˈxit̪] while hoy is [ˈoj]. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hit is recorded at frequency rank #14,612, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈxit̪]. hoy is at rank #149, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈoj].

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 14761, this pair ranks #282,859 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hit vs hoy

Shared letters: h. Private to "hit": it. Private to "hoy": oy.

"hit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hoy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hit" for "hoy" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hit" is a noun and "hoy" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hit" or "hoy"?
"hoy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #149 in our Spanish list, against #14,612 for "hit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hoy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,859 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hit" and "hoy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hit vs hut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #282,859 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