tum vs tun, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#29,375
“tum” frequency rank: #245
“tun” frequency rank: 29620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tum	tun
Definition	dann, alsdann	eine Handlung ausführen

Letter map: tum vs tun

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

3 ch

tum

3 ch

tun

Grammar separator: tum vs tun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tum is anadverb and tunaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “tum” becomes n in “tun”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tum is recorded at frequency rank #29,375, classified as anadv, pronounced […]. tun is at rank #245, tagged as averb, pronounced [tuːn].

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 29620, this pair ranks #1,763,456 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tum vs tun

Shared letters: tu. Private to "tum": m. Private to "tun": n.

"tum" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tum" and "tun" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tum" is an adverb and "tun" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "tum" or "tun"?

"tun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #245 in our German list, against #29,375 for "tum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "tum" vs "tun" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "tum" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "tun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,763,456 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tum" and "tun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tum". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,763,456 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.