makevsmaysTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#5,200
“make” frequency rank
#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
49264
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature make mays
Definition machen, herstellen das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays)

Letter map: make vs mays

Shared letters muted; letters that set make and mays apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
make
4 ch
mays

Part-of-speech tell for make / mays

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: make is averb and maysanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

make is recorded at frequency rank #5,200, classified as averb, pronounced [meɪk]. mays is at rank #44,064, tagged as anoun, 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 49264, this pair ranks #1,217,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of make vs mays

Shared letters: am. Private to "make": ek. Private to "mays": sy.

"make" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • makeamke · maek · makke · mkae · mmake
  • maysamys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "make" and "mays" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "make" is a verb and "mays" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "make" or "mays"?
"make" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,200 in our German list, against #44,064 for "mays". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "make" vs "mays" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "make" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,217,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "make" and "mays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mays 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 #1,217,944 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