miesvsmietWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mies is a adjective, miet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mies” is an adjective and “miet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,597
“mies” frequency rank
#29,239
“miet” frequency rank
37836
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mies miet
Definition auf verdrießlicher, ärgerlicher, ablehnender Art und Weise schlecht; wertlos, elend, übel 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs mieten

Where the eye mixes mies and miet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mies and miet follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
mies
4 ch
miet

Why the eye confuses mies with miet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mies is [miːs] while miet is [miːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “mies” becomes t in “miet”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mies is recorded at frequency rank #8,597, classified as anadj, pronounced [miːs]. miet is at rank #29,239, tagged as averb, pronounced [miːt].

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 37836, this pair ranks #1,579,828 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mies vs miet

Shared letters: eim. Private to "mies": s. Private to "miet": t.

"mies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "miet" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miesimes · meis · miess · mise · mmies
  • mietimet · meit · miett · mmiet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mies" and "miet" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mies" is an adjective and "miet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mies" vs "miet" - which ranks higher?
"mies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,597 in our German list, against #29,239 for "miet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "miet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,579,828 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mies" and "miet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miet vs mietet". 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 #1,579,828 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