meavsmoeTell them apart

Quick tell: mea is a pronoun, moe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mea” is a pronoun and “moe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,498
“mea” frequency rank
#42,005
“moe” frequency rank
78503
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mea moe
Definition Possessivpronomen der 1. Person Singular ‚mein‘, ‚meine‘ müde

Where the eye mixes mea and moe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mea and moe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
mea
3 ch
moe

Why the eye confuses mea with moe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mea is [ˈmea] while moe is [muː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mea is recorded at frequency rank #36,498, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈmea]. moe is at rank #42,005, tagged as anadj, pronounced [muː].

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 78503, this pair ranks #236,896 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mea vs moe

Shared letters: em. Private to "mea": a. Private to "moe": o.

"mea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "moe" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mea" for "moe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mea" is a pronoun and "moe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mea" or "moe" show up more?
"mea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,498 in our German list, against #42,005 for "moe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,896 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mea" and "moe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moe vs mora". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #236,896 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