undvsunderWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: und is a conjunction, under is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“und” is a conjunction and “under” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,978
“und” frequency rank
#18,108
“under” frequency rank
33086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature und under
Definition Y. Debajo, bajo.

Where the eye mixes und and under

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
und
5 ch
under

Look-alike desk: und vs under

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: und is /ʊnt/ while under is /ˈʌn.də(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “und” sits inside “under”, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

und is recorded at frequency rank #14,978, classified as aconj, pronounced /ʊnt/. under is at rank #18,108, tagged as aprep, pronounced /ˈʌn.də(ɹ)/.

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 33086, this pair ranks #198,645 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of und vs under

Shared letters: dnu. Private to "und": -. Private to "under": er.

"und" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "under" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • undernuder · udner · undder · underr · undre · unedr · unnder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "und" for "under" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "und" is a conjunction and "under" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "und" or "under" show up more?
"und" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,978 in our Spanish list, against #18,108 for "under". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "und" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "under" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #198,645 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "und" and "under" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "und vs UPN". 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 #198,645 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list