MehlvsmesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Mehl is a noun, mes is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mehl” is a noun and “mes” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,773
“Mehl” frequency rank
#31,176
“mes” frequency rank
40949
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mehl mes
Definition meist aus gemahlenen Getreidekörnern gewonnenes pulverförmiges Produkt Plural Maskulinum des Pronomens mon

Where the eye mixes Mehl and mes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mehl
3 ch
mes

Visual trap between Mehl and mes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mehl is [meːl] while mes is [me]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mehl is recorded at frequency rank #9,773, classified as anoun, pronounced [meːl]. mes is at rank #31,176, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [me].

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 40949, this pair ranks #1,493,686 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mehl vs mes

Shared letters: em. Private to "Mehl": hl. Private to "mes": s.

"Mehl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mehlemhl · mehhl · mehll · melh · mhel · mmehl

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mehl" and "mes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mehl" is a noun and "mes" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Mehl" or "mes" show up more?
"Mehl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,773 in our German list, against #31,176 for "mes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mehl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,493,686 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mehl" and "mes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs mes". 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 #1,493,686 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