sumvssupiTell them apart

Quick tell: sum is a verb, supi is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,289
“sum” frequency rank
#36,051
“supi” frequency rank
67340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sum supi
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs esse großartig, hervorragend, besonders gut

Letter map: sum vs supi

Shared letters muted; letters that set sum and supi apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sum
4 ch
supi

Role in the sentence - sum and supi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sum is averb and supianadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sum is recorded at frequency rank #31,289, classified as averb, pronounced […]. supi is at rank #36,051, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈzuːpi].

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 67340, this pair ranks #543,352 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sum vs supi

Shared letters: su. Private to "sum": m. Private to "supi": ip.

"sum" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "supi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • supispui · ssupi · suip · suppi · uspi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sum" and "supi" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sum" is a verb and "supi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sum" or "supi" show up more?
"sum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,289 in our German list, against #36,051 for "supi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sum" and "supi".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sum" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "supi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #543,352 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sum" and "supi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "supi vs SUVs". 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 #543,352 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