Which to use
“heard” is a verb and “heavy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,336
- “heard” frequency rank
- #19,854
- “heavy” frequency rank
- 58190
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heard | heavy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prétérit de hear. | Heavy metal : forme de musique proche du hard rock, utilisant traditionnellement des guitares, des guitares basses au son plus ou moins saturé, une batterie et un chanteur. D’autres instruments peuvent être utilisés (piano, synthétiseur, etc.). |
Where the eye mixes heard and heavy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heard (CVVCC) and heavy (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: heard vs heavy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heard is \ˈhɝd\ while heavy is \ɛ.vi\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heard is recorded at frequency rank #38,336, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈhɝd\. heavy is at rank #19,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.vi\.
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 58190, this pair ranks #110,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of heard vs heavy
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "heard": dr. Private to "heavy": vy.
"heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "heavy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heard" and "heavy" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "heard" or "heavy" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "heard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heavy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heard" and "heavy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heard vs heurt". 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 #110,510 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.