MaisvsMalsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#9,409
“Mais” frequency rank
#48,319
“Mals” frequency rank
57728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mais Mals
Definition Botanik: eine Gemeinde in Südtirol

Letter map: Mais vs Mals

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mais and Mals apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Mais (CVVC) and Mals (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Mais
4 ch
Mals

Part-of-speech tell for Mais / Mals

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mais is anoun and Malsaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “Mais” becomes l in “Mals”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57728, 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]. Mals is at rank #48,319, 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 57728, this pair ranks #890,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mais vs Mals

Shared letters: ams. Private to "Mais": i. Private to "Mals": l.

"Mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Mals" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mais ← amis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais
  • Mals ← amls · malls · malss · masl · mlas · mmals

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mais" and "Mals" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mais" is a noun and "Mals" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Mais" vs "Mals" - which ranks higher?
"Mais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,409 in our German list, against #48,319 for "Mals". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Mais" and "Mals".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #890,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mais" and "Mals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals 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 #890,023 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