maysvsneosWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#44,064
“mays” frequency rank
#13,662
“neos” frequency rank
57726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mays neos
Definition das Artepitheton für den Mais (Zea mays) Indikativ Futur Aktiv des Verbs nei

Letter map: mays vs neos

Shared letters muted; letters that set mays and neos apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. mays and neos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
mays
4 ch
neos

Grammar separator: mays vs neos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mays is anoun and neosaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mays is recorded at frequency rank #44,064, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. neos is at rank #13,662, tagged as averb, 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 57726, this pair ranks #890,088 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mays vs neos

Shared letters: s. Private to "mays": amy. Private to "neos": eno.

"mays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "neos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mays ← amys · masy · mayss · mayys · mmays · myas
  • neos ← enos · neoss · neso · nneos · noes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mays" for "neos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mays" is a noun and "neos" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mays" vs "neos" - which ranks higher?
"neos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,662 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 "neos" 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 "neos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #890,088 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mays" and "neos" 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 #890,088 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