Which to use
“half” is a verb and “ham” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,750
- “half” frequency rank
- #17,150
- “ham” frequency rank
- 37900
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | half | ham |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du prétérit de helfen. | Onomatopée issue de la délectation de boire ou de manger. |
Where the eye mixes half and ham
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between half and ham
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: half is \half\ while ham is \am\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
half is recorded at frequency rank #20,750, classified as averb, pronounced \half\. ham is at rank #17,150, tagged as anintj, pronounced \am\.
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 37900, this pair ranks #259,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of half vs ham
Shared letters: ah. Private to "half": fl. Private to "ham": m.
"half" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- half ← ahlf · hafl · halff · hallf · hhalf · hlaf
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "half" for "ham" ever safe?
Frequency check: "half" vs "ham" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "half" and "ham" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "half" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "half" and "ham" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "half vs hash". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #259,176 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.