plantsvssumWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,962
“plants” frequency rank
#31,289
“sum” frequency rank
81251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plants sum
Definition Plural des Substantivs plant 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs esse

Letter map: plants vs sum

Shared letters muted; letters that set plants and sum apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

6 ch
plants
3 ch
sum

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: plants is anoun and sumaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plants is recorded at frequency rank #49,962, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. sum is at rank #31,289, tagged as averb, 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 81251, this pair ranks #179,471 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of plants vs sum

Shared letters: s. Private to "plants": alnpt. Private to "sum": mu.

"plants" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "sum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plantslpants · palnts · plannts · plantss · plantts · platns · pllants · plnats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plants" and "sum" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plants" is a noun and "sum" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plants" or "sum"?
"sum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,289 in our German list, against #49,962 for "plants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "plants" and "sum". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,471 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plants" and "sum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plants 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list