maltvsmitWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: malt is a verb, mit is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“malt” is a verb and “mit” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,197
“malt” frequency rank
#12
“mit” frequency rank
13209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malt mit
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs malen etwas oder jemandem angeschlossen oder damit als gewisse Einheit verbunden; zusammen

Where the eye mixes malt and mit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
malt
3 ch
mit

Visual trap between malt and mit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malt is [maːlt] while mit is [mɪt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malt is recorded at frequency rank #13,197, classified as averb, pronounced [maːlt]. mit is at rank #12, tagged as aprep, pronounced [mɪt].

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 13209, this pair ranks #1,959,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of malt vs mit

Shared letters: mt. Private to "malt": al. Private to "mit": i.

"malt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maltamlt · mallt · maltt · matl · mlat · mmalt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malt" and "mit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malt" is a verb and "mit" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "malt" vs "mit" - which ranks higher?
"mit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12 in our German list, against #13,197 for "malt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malt" and "mit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs malt". 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 #1,959,406 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