MartinvsMattisConfusable pair

Quick tell: Martin is a name, Mattis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Martin” is a name and “Mattis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#907
“Martin” frequency rank
#46,831
“Mattis” frequency rank
47738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Martin Mattis
Definition männlicher Vorname Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Matti

Where the eye mixes Martin and Mattis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Martin and Mattis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Martin
6 ch
Mattis

Visual trap between Martin and Mattis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Martin is [ˈmaʁtiːn] while Mattis is [ˈmatis]. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Martin is recorded at frequency rank #907, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈmaʁtiːn]. Mattis is at rank #46,831, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmatis].

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 47738, this pair ranks #1,273,822 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Martin vs Mattis

Shared letters: aimt. Private to "Martin": nr. Private to "Mattis": s.

"Martin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Mattis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Martinamrtin · maritn · marrtin · martinn · martni · marttin · matrin · mmartin
  • Mattisamttis · matis · matits · mattiss · mattsi · mmattis · mtatis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Martin" for "Mattis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Martin" is a name and "Mattis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Martin" vs "Mattis" - which ranks higher?
"Martin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #907 in our German list, against #46,831 for "Mattis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Martin" and "Mattis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Martin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mattis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,273,822 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Martin" and "Mattis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marti vs Mattis". 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 #1,273,822 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