MaivsmaysWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Mai” and “mays” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#586
“Mai” frequency rank
#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
44650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mai mays
Definition der fünfte Monat im Jahr das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays)

Letter map: Mai vs mays

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mai and mays apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
Mai
4 ch
mays

Spelling & dictionary notes on Mai vs mays

Mai and mays are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mai is recorded at frequency rank #586, classified as anoun, pronounced [maɪ̯]. mays is at rank #44,064, tagged as anoun, 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 44650, this pair ranks #1,379,303 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mai vs mays

Shared letters: am. Private to "Mai": i. Private to "mays": sy.

"Mai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maysamys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mai" and "mays" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "Mai" or "mays" show up more?
"Mai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #586 in our German list, against #44,064 for "mays". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Mai" and "mays".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,379,303 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mai" and "mays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mays vs puzzles". 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 #1,379,303 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