himvshumConfusable pair

Quick tell: him is a pronoun, hum is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“him” is a pronoun and “hum” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,748
“him” frequency rank
#7,922
“hum” frequency rank
27670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature him hum
Definition caso objetivo da terceira pessoa masculina do singular, ele, o, lhe (com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência

Letter map: him vs hum

Shared letters muted; letters that set him and hum apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
him
3 ch
hum

Role in the sentence - him and hum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: him is apronoun and humanintj. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “him” becomes u in “hum”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

him is recorded at frequency rank #19,748, classified as apron. hum is at rank #7,922, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˈũ/.

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 27670, this pair ranks #41,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of him vs hum

Shared letters: hm. Private to "him": i. Private to "hum": u.

"him" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "him" for "hum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "him" is a pronoun and "hum" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "him" or "hum"?
"hum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,922 in our Portuguese list, against #19,748 for "him". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "him" and "hum".

  • Full dictionary entry for "him" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "him" and "hum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "him vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #41,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list