shamevsSummeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
#2,923
“Summe” frequency rank
46414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame Summe
Definition jemanden beschämen Ergebnis einer Addition mehrerer Zahlen

Letter map: shame vs Summe

Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and Summe apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. shame (CCVCV) and Summe (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
shame
5 ch
Summe

Grammar separator: shame vs Summe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shame is averb and Summeanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Summe is at rank #2,923, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzʊmə].

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 46414, this pair ranks #1,319,943 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs Summe

Shared letters: ems. Private to "shame": ah. Private to "Summe": u.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Summe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame
  • Summe ← smume · ssumme · sume · sumem · usmme

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shame" and "Summe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shame" is a verb and "Summe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shame" vs "Summe" - which ranks higher?
"Summe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,923 in our German list, against #43,491 for "shame". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "shame" and "Summe". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Summe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,319,943 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "Summe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shame". 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 #1,319,943 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