MailvsmeiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,814
“Mail” frequency rank
#10,695
“mei” frequency rank
12509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mail mei
Definition E-Mail meine, die meinen/meinigen mit Bezug auf mehrere vorher erwähnte Objekte oder Personen

Where the eye mixes Mail and mei

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mail
3 ch
mei

Visual trap between Mail and mei

A purely visual mix-up. Mail ([mɛɪ̯l]) and mei ([ˈmeʔi]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12509, 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]. mei is at rank #10,695, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmeʔi].

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 12509, this pair ranks #1,963,755 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mail vs mei

Shared letters: im. Private to "Mail": al. Private to "mei": e.

"Mail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mailamil · maill · mial · mmail

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mail" for "mei" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([mɛɪ̯l] versus [ˈmeʔi]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Mail" or "mei" show up more?
"Mail" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,814 in our German list, against #10,695 for "mei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Mail" and "mei" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,963,755 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mail" and "mei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mei vs mme". 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 #1,963,755 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