magvsmalaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mag is a unknown, mala is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mag” is an unknown and “mala” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#411
“mag” frequency rank
#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
45851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mag mala
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv von mögen verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt

Letter map: mag vs mala

Shared letters muted; letters that set mag and mala apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
mag
4 ch
mala

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mag is anunknown and malaanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mag is recorded at frequency rank #411, classified as anunknown, pronounced [maːk]. mala is at rank #45,440, tagged as anadj.

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 45851, this pair ranks #1,339,078 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mag vs mala

Shared letters: am. Private to "mag": g. Private to "mala": l.

"mag" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malamaal · malla · mlaa · mmala

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mag" and "mala" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mag" is an unknown and "mala" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mag" or "mala"?
"mag" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #411 in our German list, against #45,440 for "mala". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "mag" and "mala". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mag" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,339,078 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mag" and "mala" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mala vs mora". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list