Which to use
“her” is an adverb and “hess” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,053
- “her” frequency rank
- #28,193
- “hess” frequency rank
- 42246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | her | hess |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Indique un mouvement en direction du locuteur | crise, misère, galère. |
Where the eye mixes her and hess
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses her with hess
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: her is \heːɐ̯\ while hess is \hɛs\. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
her is recorded at frequency rank #14,053, classified as anadv, pronounced \heːɐ̯\. hess is at rank #28,193, tagged as anoun, pronounced \hɛs\.
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 42246, this pair ranks #227,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of her vs hess
Shared letters: eh. Private to "her": r. Private to "hess": s.
"her" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hess ← ehss · hes · hhess · hses
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "her" and "hess" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "her" vs "hess" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "her" and "hess" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "her" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hess" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #227,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "her" and "hess" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hash vs hess". 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 #227,073 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.