mietvsmileWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#29,239
“miet” frequency rank
#42,680
“mile” frequency rank
71919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature miet mile
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs mieten Meile

Where the eye mixes miet and mile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. miet (CVVC) and mile (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
miet
4 ch
mile

Look-alike desk: miet vs mile

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: miet is [miːt] while mile is [maɪl]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

miet is recorded at frequency rank #29,239, classified as averb, pronounced [miːt]. mile is at rank #42,680, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maɪl].

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 71919, this pair ranks #403,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of miet vs mile

Shared letters: eim. Private to "miet": t. Private to "mile": l.

"miet" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miet ← imet · meit · miett · mmiet
  • mile ← imle · miel · mlie · mmile

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "miet" and "mile" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "miet" is a verb and "mile" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "miet" or "mile"?
"miet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,239 in our German list, against #42,680 for "mile". 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 "miet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "miet" and "mile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mile vs Milfs". 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 #403,021 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