thingvstungTell them apart

Quick tell: thing is a noun, tung is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“thing” is a noun and “tung” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,088
“thing” frequency rank
#40,899
“tung” frequency rank
58987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thing tung
Definition ein materielles Objekt, ohne Bewusstsein von Gewicht, sowohl rein körperlich als auch übertragen; schwer

Letter map: thing vs tung

Shared letters muted; letters that set thing and tung apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
thing
4 ch
tung

Role in the sentence - thing and tung

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thing is anoun and tunganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thing is recorded at frequency rank #18,088, classified as anoun, pronounced [θɪŋ]. tung is at rank #40,899, tagged as anadj, 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 58987, this pair ranks #841,596 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of thing vs tung

Shared letters: gnt. Private to "thing": hi. Private to "tung": u.

"thing" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "tung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thinghting · thhing · thign · thingg · thinng · thnig · tihng · tthing
  • tungtnug · ttung · tugn · tungg · tunng · utng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "thing" for "tung" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thing" is a noun and "tung" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "thing" or "tung"?
"thing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,088 in our German list, against #40,899 for "tung". 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 "thing" and "tung".

  • Full dictionary entry for "thing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #841,596 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thing" and "tung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tung". 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 #841,596 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