hen vs her, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hen” is a noun and “her” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,208
“hen” frequency rank: #14,053
“her” frequency rank: 60261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hen	her
Definition	Poule.	Indique un mouvement en direction du locuteur

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hen and her apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

hen

3 ch

her

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hen is \ˈhɛn\ while her is \heːɐ̯\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “hen” becomes r in “her”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hen is recorded at frequency rank #46,208, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhɛn\. her is at rank #14,053, tagged as anadv, pronounced \heːɐ̯\.

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 60261, this pair ranks #98,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hen vs her

Shared letters: eh. Private to "hen": n. Private to "her": r.

"hen" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "her" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

hen#46,208

her#14,053

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hen" and "her" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hen" is a noun and "her" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "hen" or "her"?

"her" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,053 in our French list, against #46,208 for "hen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hen vs her

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hen”; for an adverb, it's “her”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hen” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable