MaisvsmalaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#9,409
“Mais” frequency rank
#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
54849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mais mala
Definition Botanik: verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt

Letter map: Mais vs mala

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mais and mala apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Mais (CVVC) and mala (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Mais
4 ch
mala

Grammar separator: Mais vs mala

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mais is anoun and malaanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mais is recorded at frequency rank #9,409, classified as anoun, pronounced [maɪ̯s]. 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 54849, this pair ranks #1,002,616 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mais vs mala

Shared letters: am. Private to "Mais": is. Private to "mala": l.

"Mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mais ← amis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais
  • mala ← maal · malla · mlaa · mmala

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mais" and "mala" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mais" is a noun and "mala" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Mais" vs "mala" - which ranks higher?
"Mais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,409 in our German list, against #45,440 for "mala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mais" 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 #1,002,616 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mais" 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

Confusion rank #1,002,616 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