malavsmamWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mala is a adjective, mam is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mala” is an adjective and “mam” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
#35,901
“mam” frequency rank
81341
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mala mam
Definition verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs měś

Letter map: mala vs mam

Shared letters muted; letters that set mala and mam apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mala
3 ch
mam

Part-of-speech tell for mala / mam

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mala is anadjective and mamaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81341, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mala is recorded at frequency rank #45,440, classified as anadj. mam is at rank #35,901, tagged as averb, pronounced [mam].

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 81341, this pair ranks #177,668 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mala vs mam

Shared letters: am. Private to "mala": l. Private to "mam": -.

"mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mam" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malamaal · malla · mlaa · mmala

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mala" and "mam" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mala" is an adjective and "mam" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mala" vs "mam" - which ranks higher?
"mam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,901 in our German list, against #45,440 for "mala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "mala" and "mam". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,668 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mala" and "mam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mala vs mora". 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 #177,668 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