MaisvsmaltWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#9,409
“Mais” frequency rank
#13,197
“malt” frequency rank
22606
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mais malt
Definition Botanik: 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs malen

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Mais and malt apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
Mais
4 ch
malt

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mais is [maɪ̯s] while malt is [maːlt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22606, 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]. malt is at rank #13,197, tagged as averb, pronounced [maːlt].

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 22606, this pair ranks #1,872,101 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mais vs malt

Shared letters: am. Private to "Mais": is. Private to "malt": lt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maisamis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais
  • maltamlt · mallt · maltt · matl · mlat · mmalt

Frequency comparison

Mais#9,409
malt#13,197

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mais" and "malt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mais" is a noun and "malt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mais" or "malt"?
"Mais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,409 in our German list, against #13,197 for "malt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Mais vs malt

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Mais”; for a verb, it's “malt”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Mais” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list