MauervsMäuseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Mauer” and “Mäuse” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,057
“Mauer” frequency rank
#12,350
“Mäuse” frequency rank
15407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mauer Mäuse
Definition Wand eines Gebäudes aus Stein, Beton oder auch Lehm Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Maus

Where the eye mixes Mauer and Mäuse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Mauer
5 ch
Mäuse

Look-alike desk: Mauer vs Mäuse

A purely visual mix-up. Mauer ([ˈmaʊ̯ɐ]) and Mäuse ([ˈmɔɪ̯zə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mauer is recorded at frequency rank #3,057, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʊ̯ɐ]. Mäuse is at rank #12,350, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɔɪ̯zə].

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 15407, this pair ranks #1,944,089 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mauer vs Mäuse

Shared letters: emu. Private to "Mauer": ar. Private to "Mäuse": .

"Mauer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "Mäuse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maueramuer · maeur · mauerr · maure · mmauer · muaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mauer" for "Mäuse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaʊ̯ɐ] versus [ˈmɔɪ̯zə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Mauer" or "Mäuse"?
"Mauer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,057 in our German list, against #12,350 for "Mäuse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mauer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mäuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,944,089 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mauer" and "Mäuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mäuse vs Mauser". 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 #1,944,089 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