hervsheróiTell them apart

Quick tell: her is a adjective, herói is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“her” is an adjective and “herói” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,857
“her” frequency rank
#2,683
“herói” frequency rank
12540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature her herói
Definition adjetivo possessivo da terceira pessoa feminina do singular, dela indivíduo notável positivamente por seus feitos e/ou capacidades

Letter map: her vs herói

Shared letters muted; letters that set her and herói apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. her runs 3 letters (CVC) against herói's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
her
5 ch
herói

Grammar separator: her vs herói

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: her is anadjective and heróianoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “her” sits inside “herói”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

her is recorded at frequency rank #9,857, classified as anadj. herói is at rank #2,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced /e.'ɾɔj/.

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 12540, this pair ranks #60,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of her vs herói

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "her": -. Private to "herói": ió.

"her" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "herói" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "her" and "herói" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "her" is an adjective and "herói" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "her" or "herói"?
"herói" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,683 in our Portuguese list, against #9,857 for "her". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "her" and "herói".

  • Full dictionary entry for "her" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "herói" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "her" and "herói" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haber vs her". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #60,000 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