heyvshisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hey is a intj, his is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,190
“hey” frequency rank
#8,209
“his” frequency rank
14399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hey his
Definition oi; olá (usada como saudação) pronome do caso possessivo da terceira pessoa masculina do singular, dele.

Letter map: hey vs his

Shared letters muted; letters that set hey and his apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
hey
3 ch
his

Grammar separator: hey vs his

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hey is anintj and hisapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hey is recorded at frequency rank #6,190, classified as anintj, pronounced /ˈhɛi/. his is at rank #8,209, tagged as apron.

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 14399, this pair ranks #57,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hey vs his

Shared letters: h. Private to "hey": ey. Private to "his": is.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hey" for "his" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hey" is an intj and "his" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "hey" or "his" show up more?
"hey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,190 in our Portuguese list, against #8,209 for "his". 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 "hey" and "his".

  • Full dictionary entry for "hey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hey" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "his vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,694 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