h vs his, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“h” is a symbol and “his” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,433
“h” frequency rank: #8,209
“his” frequency rank: 9642
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	h	his
Definition	símbolo de hora:	pronome do caso possessivo da terceira pessoa masculina do singular, dele.

Letter map: h vs his

Shared letters muted; letters that set h and his apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

3 ch

his

Grammar separator: h vs his

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: h is asymbol and hisapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “h” sits inside “his”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

h is recorded at frequency rank #1,433, classified as asymbol. his is at rank #8,209, tagged as apron.

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 9642, this pair ranks #63,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of h vs his

Shared letters: h. Private to "h": -. Private to "his": is.

"h" · 1 letters · shape C · "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "h" and "his" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "h" is a symbol and "his" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "h" or "his" show up more?

"h" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,433 in our Portuguese list, against #8,209 for "his". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "h" and "his".

Full dictionary entry for "h" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #63,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"h" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "his vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.