Which to use
“help” and “hey” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,156
- “help” frequency rank
- #3,461
- “hey” frequency rank
- 18617
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | help | hey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À l’aide. | Hé. |
Where the eye mixes help and hey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses help with hey
A purely visual mix-up. help (\hɛlp\) and hey (\heɪ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
help is recorded at frequency rank #15,156, classified as anintj, pronounced \hɛlp\. 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 18617, this pair ranks #377,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of help vs hey
Shared letters: eh. Private to "help": lp. Private to "hey": y.
"help" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hey" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- help ← ehlp · hellp · helpp · hepl · hhelp · hlep
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "help" for "hey" ever safe?
Frequency check: "help" vs "hey" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "help" 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 #377,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "help" and "hey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "help vs hep". 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 #377,402 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.