mauvsmeTell them apart

Quick tell: mau is a adjective, me is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mau” is an adjective and “me” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,357
“mau” frequency rank
#1,980
“me” frequency rank
19337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mau me
Definition sich nicht ganz wohl fühlend meines Erachtens

Letter map: mau vs me

Shared letters muted; letters that set mau and me apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mau
2 ch
me

Role in the sentence - mau and me

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mau is anadjective and meanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mau is recorded at frequency rank #17,357, classified as anadj, pronounced [maʊ̯]. me is at rank #1,980, tagged as anabbrev.

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 19337, this pair ranks #1,909,417 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mau vs me

Shared letters: m. Private to "mau": au. Private to "me": e.

"mau" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "me" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mau" for "me" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mau" is an adjective and "me" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mau" vs "me" - which ranks higher?
"me" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,980 in our German list, against #17,357 for "mau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mau" and "me".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "me" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,909,417 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mau" and "me" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs mau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,909,417 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