malevsMalsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: male is a verb, Mals is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“male” is a verb and “Mals” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,905
“male” frequency rank
#48,319
“Mals” frequency rank
52224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature male Mals
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs malen eine Gemeinde in Südtirol

Letter map: male vs Mals

Shared letters muted; letters that set male and Mals apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. male (CVCV) and Mals (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
male
4 ch
Mals

Grammar separator: male vs Mals

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: male is averb and Malsaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “male” becomes s in “Mals”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

male is recorded at frequency rank #3,905, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːlə]. Mals is at rank #48,319, tagged as aname, 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 52224, this pair ranks #1,105,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of male vs Mals

Shared letters: alm. Private to "male": e. Private to "Mals": s.

"male" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Mals" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • male ← amle · mael · mlae · mmale
  • Mals ← amls · malls · malss · masl · mlas · mmals

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "male" and "Mals" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "male" is a verb and "Mals" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "male" or "Mals"?
"male" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,905 in our German list, against #48,319 for "Mals". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "male" and "Mals". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "male" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,105,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "male" and "Mals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals 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 #1,105,206 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