hadvshkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: had is a verb, hk is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“had” is a verb and “hk” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,767
“had” frequency rank
#24,998
“hk” frequency rank
43765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature had hk
Definition Prétérit de have (« avoir »). Symbole du préfixe hectokilo-, signifiant 10⁵.

Letter map: had vs hk

Shared letters muted; letters that set had and hk apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
had
2 ch
hk

Part-of-speech tell for had / hk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: had is averb and hkasymbol. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

had is recorded at frequency rank #18,767, classified as averb, pronounced \hæd\. hk is at rank #24,998, tagged as asymbol.

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 43765, this pair ranks #215,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of had vs hk

Shared letters: h. Private to "had": ad. Private to "hk": k.

"had" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hk" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "had" for "hk" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "had" is a verb and "hk" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "had" or "hk" show up more?
"had" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,767 in our French list, against #24,998 for "hk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "had" and "hk". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "had" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #215,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "had" and "hk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hk". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #215,596 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list