mesvsmmeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#31,176
“mes” frequency rank
#46,851
“mme” frequency rank
78027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mes mme
Definition Plural Maskulinum des Pronomens mon Mutter

Where the eye mixes mes and mme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mes (CVC) and mme (CCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
mes
3 ch
mme

Visual trap between mes and mme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mes is [me] while mme is [m̩mɛ]. 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 (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mes is recorded at frequency rank #31,176, classified as anunknown, pronounced [me]. mme is at rank #46,851, tagged as anoun, pronounced [m̩mɛ].

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 78027, this pair ranks #247,435 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mes vs mme

Shared letters: em. Private to "mes": s. Private to "mme": -.

"mes" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mes" for "mme" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mes" is an unknown and "mme" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mes" or "mme"?
"mes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,176 in our German list, against #46,851 for "mme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #247,435 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mes" and "mme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Memel vs mme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #247,435 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