maysvsmusTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
#22,072
“mus” frequency rank
66136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mays mus
Definition das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays) 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs musen

Letter map: mays vs mus

Shared letters muted; letters that set mays and mus apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mays runs 4 letters (CVVC) against mus's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mays
3 ch
mus

Role in the sentence - mays and mus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mays is anoun and musaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mays is recorded at frequency rank #44,064, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. mus is at rank #22,072, tagged as averb, pronounced [muːs].

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 66136, this pair ranks #583,393 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mays vs mus

Shared letters: ms. Private to "mays": ay. Private to "mus": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mays ← amys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mays" and "mus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mays" is a noun and "mus" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mays" vs "mus" - which ranks higher?
"mus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,072 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mays" and "mus".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #583,393 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mays" and "mus" 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 #583,393 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