Which to use
“sum” is a verb and “Summe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,289
- “sum” frequency rank
- #2,923
- “Summe” frequency rank
- 34212
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sum | Summe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs esse | Ergebnis einer Addition mehrerer Zahlen |
Letter map: sum vs Summe
Shared letters muted; letters that set sum and Summe apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for sum / Summe
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sum is averb and Summeanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sum” sits inside “Summe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sum is recorded at frequency rank #31,289, 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 34212, this pair ranks #1,668,531 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sum vs Summe
Shared letters: msu. Private to "sum": -. Private to "Summe": e.
"sum" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Summe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Summe ← smume · ssumme · sume · sumem · usmme
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sum" for "Summe" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "sum" or "Summe" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "sum" and "Summe". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "sum" 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 #1,668,531 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sum" and "Summe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sum". 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 #1,668,531 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.