holvshumTell them apart

Quick tell: hol is a verb, hum is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#5,270
“hol” frequency rank
#47,488
“hum” frequency rank
52758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hol hum
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs holen männliches Personalpronomen der dritten Person Singular im Objektiv(≘ Dativ und Akkusativ): ihm, ihn

Letter map: hol vs hum

Shared letters muted; letters that set hol and hum apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
hol
3 ch
hum

Part-of-speech tell for hol / hum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hol is averb and humapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hol is recorded at frequency rank #5,270, classified as averb, pronounced [hoːl]. 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 52758, this pair ranks #1,084,381 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hol vs hum

Shared letters: h. Private to "hol": lo. Private to "hum": mu.

"hol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hol" for "hum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hol" is a verb and "hum" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hol" or "hum"?
"hol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,270 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.

After this comparison

You've compared "hol" and "hum". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hol" 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 #1,084,381 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hol" and "hum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hum vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,084,381 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