Which to use
“Mary” is a name and “paid” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,536
- “Mary” frequency rank
- #44,122
- “paid” frequency rank
- 48658
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Mary | paid |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | weiblicher Vorname | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs pay |
Letter map: Mary vs paid
Shared letters muted; letters that set Mary and paid apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. Mary (CVCV) and paid (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Role in the sentence - Mary and paid
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mary is aname and paidaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48658, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Mary is recorded at frequency rank #4,536, classified as aname, pronounced […]. paid is at rank #44,122, tagged as averb, 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 48658, this pair ranks #1,240,414 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Mary vs paid
Shared letters: a. Private to "Mary": mry. Private to "paid": dip.
"Mary" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Mary" for "paid" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Mary" or "paid" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Mary" and "paid".
- Full dictionary entry for "Mary" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,240,414 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Mary" and "paid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paid 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 #1,240,414 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.