MaisvsmigWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#9,409
“Mais” frequency rank
#37,671
“mig” frequency rank
47080
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mais mig
Definition Botanik: Akkusativ des Personalpronomens jeg

Where the eye mixes Mais and mig

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

4 ch
Mais
3 ch
mig

Why the eye confuses Mais with mig

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mais is [maɪ̯s] while mig is [ˈmɑj]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47080, 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]. mig is at rank #37,671, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmɑj].

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 47080, this pair ranks #1,296,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mais vs mig

Shared letters: im. Private to "Mais": as. Private to "mig": g.

"Mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mig" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maisamis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mais" and "mig" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mais" is a noun and "mig" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Mais" or "mig" show up more?
"Mais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,409 in our German list, against #37,671 for "mig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,296,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mais" and "mig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mig 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 #1,296,892 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