her vs hey, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#9,857
“her” frequency rank: #6,190
“hey” frequency rank: 16047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	her	hey
Definition	adjetivo possessivo da terceira pessoa feminina do singular, dela	oi; olá (usada como saudação)

Letter map: her vs hey

Shared letters muted; letters that set her and hey apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

her

3 ch

hey

Grammar separator: her vs hey

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: her is anadjective and heyanintj. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “her” becomes y in “hey”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

her is recorded at frequency rank #9,857, classified as anadj. hey is at rank #6,190, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˈhɛi/.

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 16047, this pair ranks #55,595 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of her vs hey

Shared letters: eh. Private to "her": r. Private to "hey": y.

"her" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hey" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "her" for "hey" ever safe?

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

Which is more common, "her" or "hey"?

"hey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,190 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.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "her" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #55,595 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"her" and "hey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haber vs her". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #55,595 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.