mervsmitTell them apart

Quick tell: mer is a noun, mit is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mer” is a noun and “mit” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,134
“mer” frequency rank
#12
“mit” frequency rank
10146
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mer mit
Definition das Meer, die See etwas oder jemandem angeschlossen oder damit als gewisse Einheit verbunden; zusammen

Where the eye mixes mer and mit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
mer
3 ch
mit

Look-alike desk: mer vs mit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mer is [mεːʀ] while mit is [mɪt]. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mer is recorded at frequency rank #10,134, classified as anoun, pronounced [mεːʀ]. mit is at rank #12, tagged as aprep, pronounced [mɪt].

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 10146, this pair ranks #1,976,570 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mer vs mit

Shared letters: m. Private to "mer": er. Private to "mit": it.

"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mer" for "mit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mer" is a noun and "mit" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mer" or "mit"?
"mit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12 in our German list, against #10,134 for "mer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "mer" and "mit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,976,570 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mer" and "mit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mer vs mora". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,976,570 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