Hit Confirm

A Hit Confirmation, commonly known as simply Hit Confirm, is a term used in many fighting games in reference to combos. A hit confirm lets the player know whether or not it is safe to continue a combo or not.

In general, when performing a combo with a character, the character will start with attacks that are generally safe on block, gradually building up into moves that are less safe on block during the combo. Taking Ryu as an example, a player may often use the following combo of ->  ->  (Shoryuken). Since Ryu's Standing is usually safe on block in most games, chaining two of them together will give the player ample time to know if these attacks were blocked successfully or not. Since Ryu's Shoryuken is a move that is highly punishable on block, if either of the two attacks were blocked, the Ryu player knows not to continue into Shoryuken, whereas if the  attacks successfully hit the opponent, then the player knows that it is safe to cancel into the Shoryuken.

Based on this principle, many normals and command normals that hit multiple times can also be used as hit confirms, as if the 1st hit is blocked, the second hit will more than likely be blocked as well, giving the player ample time to react to the situation and decide whether or not to continue the combo.