he vs hum, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“he” is a pronoun and “hum” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,293
“he” frequency rank: #7,922
“hum” frequency rank: 15215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	he	hum
Definition	caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural, eles, elas	(com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência

Letter map: he vs hum

Shared letters muted; letters that set he and hum apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

hum

Role in the sentence - he and hum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: he is apronoun and humanintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

he is recorded at frequency rank #7,293, classified as apron. hum is at rank #7,922, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˈũ/.

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 15215, this pair ranks #56,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of he vs hum

Shared letters: h. Private to "he": e. Private to "hum": mu.

"he" · 2 letters · shape CV · "hum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "he" for "hum" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "he" is a pronoun and "hum" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "he" or "hum" show up more?

"he" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,293 in our Portuguese list, against #7,922 for "hum". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "he" and "hum". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "he" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #56,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"he" and "hum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hui vs hum". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.