HenrivsHenryWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,082
“Henri” frequency rank
#2,682
“Henry” frequency rank
18764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Henri Henry
Definition Henrique, Henrico Henrique, Henrico

Where the eye mixes Henri and Henry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Henri and Henry follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Henri
5 ch
Henry

Why the eye confuses Henri with Henry

A purely visual mix-up. Henri (/ɑ̃.ʁi/.) and Henry (/ˈhɛn.ri/.) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - i in “Henri” becomes y in “Henry”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Henri is recorded at frequency rank #16,082, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɑ̃.ʁi/.. Henry is at rank #2,682, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɛn.ri/..

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 18764, this pair ranks #52,136 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Henri vs Henry

Shared letters: ehnr. Private to "Henri": i. Private to "Henry": y.

"Henri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Henry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Henri ← ehnri · henir · hennri · henrri · herni · hhenri · hneri
  • Henry ← ehnry · hennry · henrry · henryy · henyr · herny · hhenry · hnery

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Henri" for "Henry" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɑ̃.ʁi/. versus /ˈhɛn.ri/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Henri" or "Henry" show up more?
"Henry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,682 in our Portuguese list, against #16,082 for "Henri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Henri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Henry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,136 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Henri" and "Henry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hani vs Henri". 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 #52,136 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