milevsmitTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#42,680
“mile” frequency rank
#12
“mit” frequency rank
42692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mile mit
Definition Meile etwas oder jemandem angeschlossen oder damit als gewisse Einheit verbunden; zusammen

Where the eye mixes mile and mit

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

4 ch
mile
3 ch
mit

Visual trap between mile and mit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mile is [maɪl] while mit is [mɪt]. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mile is recorded at frequency rank #42,680, classified as anoun, pronounced [maɪl]. mit is at rank #12, tagged as aprep, pronounced [mɪt].

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 42692, this pair ranks #1,441,560 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mile vs mit

Shared letters: im. Private to "mile": el. Private to "mit": t.

"mile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mileimle · miel · mlie · mmile

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mile" for "mit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mile" is a noun and "mit" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mile" or "mit" show up more?
"mit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12 in our German list, against #42,680 for "mile". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,441,560 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mile" and "mit" 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 #1,441,560 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