haevsheyTell them apart

Quick tell: hae is a noun, hey is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hae” is a noun and “hey” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,121
“hae” frequency rank
#3,461
“hey” frequency rank
52582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hae hey
Definition Kava. Hé.

Where the eye mixes hae and hey

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

3 ch
hae
3 ch
hey

Visual trap between hae and hey

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hae is \hae\ while hey is \heɪ\. 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 intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hae is recorded at frequency rank #49,121, classified as anoun, pronounced \hae\. hey is at rank #3,461, tagged as anintj, pronounced \heɪ\.

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 52582, this pair ranks #146,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hae vs hey

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hae": a. Private to "hey": y.

"hae" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "hey" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hae" and "hey" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hae" is a noun and "hey" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "hae" or "hey" show up more?
"hey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,461 in our French list, against #49,121 for "hae". 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 "hae" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hae" and "hey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs Hatem". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #146,704 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