malavsmarTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
#10,521
“mar” frequency rank
55961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mala mar
Definition verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt etwas stören, beeinträchtigen, beschädigen, verderben, verunstalten

Letter map: mala vs mar

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

4 ch
mala
3 ch
mar

Role in the sentence - mala and mar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mala is anadjective and maraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mala is recorded at frequency rank #45,440, classified as anadj. mar is at rank #10,521, tagged as averb, pronounced [mɑːʳ].

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 55961, this pair ranks #958,969 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mala vs mar

Shared letters: am. Private to "mala": l. Private to "mar": r.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malamaal · malla · mlaa · mmala

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mala" for "mar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mala" is an adjective and "mar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mala" or "mar"?
"mar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,521 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #958,969 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mala" and "mar" 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 #958,969 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