timovstumWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: timo is a noun, tum is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“timo” is a noun and “tum” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,677
“timo” frequency rank
#29,375
“tum” frequency rank
37052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature timo tum
Definition Angst, Furcht, Bange dann, alsdann

Letter map: timo vs tum

Shared letters muted; letters that set timo and tum apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
timo
3 ch
tum

Part-of-speech tell for timo / tum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: timo is anoun and tumanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

timo is recorded at frequency rank #7,677, classified as anoun. tum is at rank #29,375, tagged as anadv, 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 37052, this pair ranks #1,600,030 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of timo vs tum

Shared letters: mt. Private to "timo": io. Private to "tum": u.

"timo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • timoitmo · timmo · tiom · tmio · ttimo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "timo" for "tum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "timo" is a noun and "tum" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "timo" vs "tum" - which ranks higher?
"timo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,677 in our German list, against #29,375 for "tum". 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 "timo" and "tum".

  • Full dictionary entry for "timo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,600,030 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "timo" and "tum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tum". 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 #1,600,030 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