MaryvssouthConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,536
“Mary” frequency rank
#8,947
“south” frequency rank
13483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mary south
Definition weiblicher Vorname Himmelsrichtung; Süden

Letter map: Mary vs south

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mary and south apart highlighted. No shared letter run. Mary runs 4 letters (CVCV) against south's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Mary
5 ch
south

Role in the sentence - Mary and south

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mary is aname and southanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mary is recorded at frequency rank #4,536, classified as aname, pronounced […]. south is at rank #8,947, tagged as anoun, 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 13483, this pair ranks #1,957,701 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mary vs south

Shared letters: none. Private to "Mary": amry. Private to "south": hostu.

"Mary" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "south" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mary ← amry · marry · maryy · mmary · mray
  • south ← osuth · sotuh · souht · southh · soutth · ssouth · suoth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mary" for "south" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mary" is a name and "south" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mary" or "south"?
"Mary" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,536 in our German list, against #8,947 for "south". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Mary" vs "south" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mary" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "south" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,701 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mary" and "south" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs south". 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 #1,957,701 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