Which to use
“makes” is a noun and “mater” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,890
- “makes” frequency rank
- #27,842
- “mater” frequency rank
- 66732
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | makes | mater |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plural des Substantivs make | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs matern |
Where the eye mixes makes and mater
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. makes and mater follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: makes vs mater
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: makes is [meɪks] while mater is [ˈmaːtɐ]. 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 66732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
makes is recorded at frequency rank #38,890, classified as anoun, pronounced [meɪks]. mater is at rank #27,842, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːtɐ].
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 66732, this pair ranks #563,317 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of makes vs mater
Shared letters: aem. Private to "makes": ks. Private to "mater": rt.
"makes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "mater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "makes" and "mater" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "makes" or "mater"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "makes" and "mater" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "makes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mater" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #563,317 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "makes" and "mater" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "makes vs Mals". 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 #563,317 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.