Hemd vs hum, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Hemd” is a noun and “hum” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,667
“Hemd” frequency rank: #47,488
“hum” frequency rank: 54155
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Hemd	hum
Definition	Teil der Oberbekleidung für den Oberkörper, vor allem für Männer	männliches Personalpronomen der dritten Person Singular im Objektiv(≘ Dativ und Akkusativ): ihm, ihn

Letter map: Hemd vs hum

Shared letters muted; letters that set Hemd and hum apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

Hemd

3 ch

hum

Grammar separator: Hemd vs hum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Hemd is anoun and humapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hemd is recorded at frequency rank #6,667, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɛmt]. hum is at rank #47,488, tagged as apron, pronounced […].

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 54155, this pair ranks #1,029,948 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hemd vs hum

Shared letters: hm. Private to "Hemd": de. Private to "hum": u.

"Hemd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

Hemd ← ehmd · hedm · hemdd · hemmd · hhemd · hmed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hemd" for "hum" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hemd" is a noun and "hum" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "Hemd" or "hum" show up more?

"Hemd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,667 in our German list, against #47,488 for "hum". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Hemd" vs "hum" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "Hemd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,029,948 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Hemd" and "hum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hum vs puzzles". 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 #1,029,948 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.