humvsofWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#47,488
“hum” frequency rank
#324
“of” frequency rank
47812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hum of
Definition männliches Personalpronomen der dritten Person Singular im Objektiv(≘ Dativ und Akkusativ): ihm, ihn von

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hum and of apart are highlighted. They share no common letter run, the confusion here is by sound, not by sight.

3 ch
hum
2 ch
of

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

hum and of form a confusable pair in the German index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hum is recorded at frequency rank #47,488, classified as apron, pronounced […]. of is at rank #324, tagged as aprep, 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 47812, this pair ranks #1,271,072 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Frequency comparison

hum#47,488
of#324

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hum" and "of" be used interchangeably?
No, "hum" and "of" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering hum vs of

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “hum”; for a preposition, it's “of”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hum” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list