HundvshurtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Hund is a noun, hurt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hund” is a noun and “hurt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,184
“Hund” frequency rank
#43,976
“hurt” frequency rank
45160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hund hurt
Definition Haustier, dessen Vorfahre der Wolf ist 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs huren

Where the eye mixes Hund and hurt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Hund and hurt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Hund
4 ch
hurt

Why the eye confuses Hund with hurt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hund is [hʊnt] while hurt is [huːɐ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hund is recorded at frequency rank #1,184, classified as anoun, pronounced [hʊnt]. hurt is at rank #43,976, tagged as averb, pronounced [huːɐ̯t].

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 45160, this pair ranks #1,362,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hund vs hurt

Shared letters: hu. Private to "Hund": dn. Private to "hurt": rt.

"Hund" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hurt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hund ← hhund · hnud · hudn · hundd · hunnd · uhnd
  • hurt ← hhurt · hrut · hurrt · hurtt · hutr · uhrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Hund" and "hurt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hund" is a noun and "hurt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Hund" vs "hurt" - which ranks higher?
"Hund" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,184 in our German list, against #43,976 for "hurt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hund" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hurt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,362,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hund" and "hurt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hum vs hurt". 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 #1,362,440 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