hör vs hum, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,601
“hör” frequency rank: #47,488
“hum” frequency rank: 50089
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: hör vs hum

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

3 ch

hör

3 ch

hum

Role in the sentence - hör and hum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hör 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 50089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hör is recorded at frequency rank #2,601, classified as averb, pronounced [høːɐ̯]. 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 50089, this pair ranks #1,187,046 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hör vs hum

Shared letters: h. Private to "hör": rö. Private to "hum": mu.

"hör" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hör" and "hum" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Frequency check: "hör" vs "hum" - which ranks higher?

"hör" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,601 in our German list, against #47,488 for "hum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "hör" 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 #1,187,046 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"hör" and "hum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hum vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,187,046 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.