Which to use
“male” is a verb and “Mühe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,905
- “male” frequency rank
- #2,352
- “Mühe” frequency rank
- 6257
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | male | Mühe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs malen | körperliche oder geistige Anstrengung |
Where the eye mixes male and Mühe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses male with Mühe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: male is [ˈmaːlə] while Mühe is [ˈmyːə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6257, 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]. Mühe is at rank #2,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmyːə].
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 6257, this pair ranks #1,992,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of male vs Mühe
Shared letters: em. Private to "male": al. Private to "Mühe": hü.
"male" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "Mühe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- male ← amle · mael · mlae · mmale
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "male" and "Mühe" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "male" or "Mühe"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "male" and "Mühe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "male" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Mühe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,992,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "male" and "Mühe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mailen vs male". 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 #1,992,226 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.