martvsmayConfusable pair

Which to use

“mart” and “may” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,678
“mart” frequency rank
#5,282
“may” frequency rank
36960
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mart may
Definition dritter Monat im Kalenderjahr; März fünfter Monat im Kalenderjahr; Mai

Where the eye mixes mart and may

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

4 ch
mart
3 ch
may

Look-alike desk: mart vs may

A purely visual mix-up. mart ([mɑɾt]) and may ([mɑj]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36960, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mart is recorded at frequency rank #31,678, classified as anoun, pronounced [mɑɾt]. may is at rank #5,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɑj].

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 36960, this pair ranks #1,602,314 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mart vs may

Shared letters: am. Private to "mart": rt. Private to "may": y.

"mart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "may" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • martamrt · marrt · martt · matr · mmart · mrat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mart" and "may" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([mɑɾt] versus [mɑj]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mart" or "may"?
"may" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,282 in our German list, against #31,678 for "mart". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "may" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,602,314 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mart" and "may" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mart 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 #1,602,314 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