mehrvsmelWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#61
“mehr” frequency rank
#15,943
“mel” frequency rank
16004
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mehr mel
Definition über viel hinausgehend; eine bestimmte Anzahl/Menge übersteigend der Honig

Where the eye mixes mehr and mel

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

4 ch
mehr
3 ch
mel

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mehr is [meːɐ̯] while mel is [mɛɫ]. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16004, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mehr is recorded at frequency rank #61, classified as apron, pronounced [meːɐ̯]. mel is at rank #15,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛɫ].

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 16004, this pair ranks #1,939,408 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mehr vs mel

Shared letters: em. Private to "mehr": hr. Private to "mel": l.

"mehr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mel" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mehremhr · mehhr · mehrr · merh · mher · mmehr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mehr" and "mel" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mehr" is a pronoun and "mel" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mehr" or "mel"?
"mehr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #61 in our German list, against #15,943 for "mel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list