mailenvsmaleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,065
“mailen” frequency rank
#3,905
“male” frequency rank
52970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mailen male
Definition eine E-Mail versenden, schicken 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs malen

Where the eye mixes mailen and male

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mailen runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against male's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mailen
4 ch
male

Visual trap between mailen and male

A purely visual mix-up. mailen ([ˈmɛɪ̯lən]) and male ([ˈmaːlə]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mailen is recorded at frequency rank #49,065, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛɪ̯lən]. male is at rank #3,905, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːlə].

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 52970, this pair ranks #1,076,107 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mailen vs male

Shared letters: aelm. Private to "mailen": in. Private to "male": -.

"mailen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "male" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mailen ← amilen · maieln · mailenn · maillen · mailne · malien · mialen · mmailen
  • male ← amle · mael · mlae · mmale

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mailen" and "male" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɛɪ̯lən] versus [ˈmaːlə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "mailen" or "male" show up more?
"male" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,905 in our German list, against #49,065 for "mailen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mailen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "male" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,076,107 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mailen" and "male" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Madsen vs mailen". 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 #1,076,107 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