MausvsmaysWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,634
“Maus” frequency rank
#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
48698
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maus mays
Definition kleines graues oder braunes Säugetier mit überwiegend langem Schwanz, rattenähnlich, in der Zuchtform auch weiß oder schwarz das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays)

Letter map: Maus vs mays

Shared letters muted; letters that set Maus and mays apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
Maus
4 ch
mays

Corpus notes: Maus and mays

Maus and mays are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - u in “Maus” becomes y in “mays”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maus is recorded at frequency rank #4,634, classified as anoun, pronounced [maʊ̯s]. mays is at rank #44,064, 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 48698, this pair ranks #1,238,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Maus vs mays

Shared letters: ams. Private to "Maus": u. Private to "mays": y.

"Maus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mausamus · masu · mauss · mmaus · muas
  • maysamys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Maus" and "mays" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - u in “Maus” becomes y in “mays”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "Maus" or "mays" show up more?
"Maus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,634 in our German list, against #44,064 for "mays". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Maus" and "mays". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,238,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maus" and "mays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mays 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 #1,238,984 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