michvsmisWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#69
“mich” frequency rank
#37,676
“mis” frequency rank
37745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mich mis
Definition [1] Akkusativ Singular des Personalpronomens ich rotes, leicht formbares Metall, das sich gut als Stromleiter eignet; Kupfer

Where the eye mixes mich and mis

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

4 ch
mich
3 ch
mis

Visual trap between mich and mis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mich is [mɪç] while mis is [mis]. 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 (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mich is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as anunknown, pronounced [mɪç]. mis is at rank #37,676, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mis].

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 37745, this pair ranks #1,582,119 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mich vs mis

Shared letters: im. Private to "mich": ch. Private to "mis": s.

"mich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • michimch · mcih · micch · michh · mihc · mmich

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mich" and "mis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mich" is an unknown and "mis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mich" or "mis" show up more?
"mich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 in our German list, against #37,676 for "mis". 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 "mich" and "mis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,582,119 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mich" and "mis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Milfs vs mis". 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 #1,582,119 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