maysvsmyWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
#2,119
“my” frequency rank
46183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mays my
Definition das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays) possessives Personalpronomen für die 1. Person Singular; mein

Letter map: mays vs my

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

4 ch
mays
2 ch
my

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mays is anoun and myapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mays is recorded at frequency rank #44,064, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. my is at rank #2,119, tagged as apron, pronounced [maɪ].

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 46183, this pair ranks #1,327,722 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mays vs my

Shared letters: my. Private to "mays": as. Private to "my": -.

"mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "my" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mays" and "my" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mays" is a noun and "my" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mays" or "my"?
"my" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,119 in our German list, against #44,064 for "mays". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "my" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,327,722 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mays" and "my" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list