Which to use
“Mast” is a noun and “musst” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,779
- “Mast” frequency rank
- #755
- “musst” frequency rank
- 17534
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Mast | musst |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | senkrecht stehender pfeilerähnlicher Träger (allgemein) | 2. Person Singular Präsens Indikativ des Verbs müssen |
Where the eye mixes Mast and musst
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Mast runs 4 letters (CVCC) against musst's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses Mast with musst
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mast is [mast] while musst is [mʊst]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Mast is recorded at frequency rank #16,779, classified as anoun, pronounced [mast]. musst is at rank #755, tagged as averb, pronounced [mʊst].
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 17534, this pair ranks #1,926,542 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Mast vs musst
Shared letters: mst. Private to "Mast": a. Private to "musst": u.
"Mast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "musst" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Mast" for "musst" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Mast" or "musst" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Mast" and "musst" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Mast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "musst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,926,542 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Mast" and "musst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs Mast". 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 #1,926,542 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.