migvsmilkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mig is a unknown, milk is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mig” is an unknown and “milk” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,671
“mig” frequency rank
#34,262
“milk” frequency rank
71933
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mig milk
Definition Akkusativ des Personalpronomens jeg 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs melken

Where the eye mixes mig and milk

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mig runs 3 letters (CVC) against milk's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mig
4 ch
milk

Why the eye confuses mig with milk

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mig is [ˈmɑj] while milk is [mɪlk]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mig is recorded at frequency rank #37,671, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmɑj]. milk is at rank #34,262, tagged as averb, pronounced [mɪlk].

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 71933, this pair ranks #402,604 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mig vs milk

Shared letters: im. Private to "mig": g. Private to "milk": kl.

"mig" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "milk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • milk ← imlk · mikl · milkk · millk · mlik · mmilk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mig" and "milk" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mig" is an unknown and "milk" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mig" or "milk" show up more?
"milk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,262 in our German list, against #37,671 for "mig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "milk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #402,604 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mig" and "milk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mig vs mme". 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 #402,604 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