humvshustWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#47,488
“hum” frequency rank
#17,034
“hust” frequency rank
64522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: hum vs hust

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

3 ch
hum
4 ch
hust

Role in the sentence - hum and hust

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hum is apronoun and hustaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hum is recorded at frequency rank #47,488, classified as apron, pronounced […]. hust is at rank #17,034, tagged as averb, pronounced [huːst].

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 64522, this pair ranks #638,532 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hum vs hust

Shared letters: hu. Private to "hum": m. Private to "hust": st.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • husthhust · hsut · husst · hustt · huts · uhst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hum" and "hust" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hum" is a pronoun and "hust" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hum" or "hust"?
"hust" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,034 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hum" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #638,532 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hum" and "hust" 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 #638,532 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