maysvsmosConfusable pair

Quick tell: mays is a noun, mos is a particle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mays” is a noun and “mos” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
#39,532
“mos” frequency rank
83596
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mays mos
Definition das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays) verleiht einer Aufforderung, Aussage, Frage oder einem Wunsch eine gewisse Nachdrücklichkeit

Letter map: mays vs mos

Shared letters muted; letters that set mays and mos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mays
3 ch
mos

Part-of-speech tell for mays / mos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mays is anoun and mosaparticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mays is recorded at frequency rank #44,064, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. mos is at rank #39,532, tagged as aparticle, pronounced [mos].

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 83596, this pair ranks #137,273 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mays vs mos

Shared letters: ms. Private to "mays": ay. Private to "mos": o.

"mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maysamys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mays" and "mos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mays" is a noun and "mos" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mays" or "mos"?
"mos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,532 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

Pair "mays" vs "mos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,273 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mays" and "mos" 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 #137,273 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