foundvsfundWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: found is a verb, fund is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“found” is a verb and “fund” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,583
“found” frequency rank
#8,370
“fund” frequency rank
28953
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature found fund
Definition gründen Fonds, Anlagefonds, Kapital

Where the eye mixes found and fund

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
found
4 ch
fund

Why the eye confuses found with fund

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: found is [faʊnd] while fund is [fʌnd]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

found is recorded at frequency rank #20,583, classified as averb, pronounced [faʊnd]. fund is at rank #8,370, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fʌnd].

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 28953, this pair ranks #1,775,628 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of found vs fund

Shared letters: dfnu. Private to "found": o. Private to "fund": -.

"found" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "fund" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foundffound · fonud · foudn · foundd · founnd · fuond · ofund
  • fundffund · fnud · fudn · fundd · funnd · ufnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "found" and "fund" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "found" is a verb and "fund" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "found" or "fund" show up more?
"fund" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,370 in our German list, against #20,583 for "found". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "found" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fund" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,775,628 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "found" and "fund" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fouls vs found". 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 #1,775,628 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list