Which to use
“mer” is a noun and “mon” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,134
- “mer” frequency rank
- #11,294
- “mon” frequency rank
- 21428
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mer | mon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | das Meer, die See | mein, meine |
Where the eye mixes mer and mon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between mer and mon
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mer is [mεːʀ] while mon is [mɔ̃]. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21428, 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]. mon is at rank #11,294, tagged as apron, pronounced [mɔ̃].
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 21428, this pair ranks #1,886,376 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mer vs mon
Shared letters: m. Private to "mer": er. Private to "mon": no.
"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mon" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mer" and "mon" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "mer" or "mon"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mer" and "mon" 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 "mon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,886,376 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mer" and "mon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mon vs mora". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #1,886,376 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.