halvshardWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“hal” and “hard” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,531
“hal” frequency rank
#7,418
“hard” frequency rank
20949
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hal hard
Definition salão condição de atuação difícil, dura

Letter map: hal vs hard

Shared letters muted; letters that set hal and hard apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
hal
4 ch
hard

Pair insight - hal / hard

hal and hard are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hal is recorded at frequency rank #13,531, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhæːˀl/. hard is at rank #7,418, tagged as anoun.

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 20949, this pair ranks #49,443 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hal vs hard

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hal": l. Private to "hard": dr.

"hal" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hardahrd · hadr · hardd · harrd · hhard · hrad

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hal" for "hard" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "hal" vs "hard" - which ranks higher?
"hard" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,418 in our Portuguese list, against #13,531 for "hal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "hal" vs "hard" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,443 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hal" and "hard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hal vs hui". 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 #49,443 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list