MailvsMaryTell them apart

Quick tell: Mail is a noun, Mary is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mail” is a noun and “Mary” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,814
“Mail” frequency rank
#4,536
“Mary” frequency rank
6350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mail Mary
Definition E-Mail weiblicher Vorname

Letter map: Mail vs Mary

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mail and Mary apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Mail
4 ch
Mary

Grammar separator: Mail vs Mary

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mail is anoun and Maryaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mail is recorded at frequency rank #1,814, classified as anoun, pronounced [mɛɪ̯l]. Mary is at rank #4,536, tagged as aname, 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 6350, this pair ranks #1,991,939 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mail vs Mary

Shared letters: am. Private to "Mail": il. Private to "Mary": ry.

"Mail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Mary" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mailamil · maill · mial · mmail
  • Maryamry · marry · maryy · mmary · mray

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mail" for "Mary" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mail" is a noun and "Mary" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Mail" vs "Mary" - which ranks higher?
"Mail" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,814 in our German list, against #4,536 for "Mary". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Mail" vs "Mary" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,991,939 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mail" and "Mary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mary 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 #1,991,939 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