mirvsmoeConfusable pair

Quick tell: mir is a pronoun, moe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mir” is a pronoun and “moe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#62
“mir” frequency rank
#42,005
“moe” frequency rank
42067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mir moe
Definition Dativ der ersten Person Singular müde

Where the eye mixes mir and moe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
mir
3 ch
moe

Look-alike desk: mir vs moe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mir is [miːɐ̯] while moe is [muː]. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mir is recorded at frequency rank #62, classified as apron, pronounced [miːɐ̯]. moe is at rank #42,005, tagged as anadj, pronounced [muː].

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 42067, this pair ranks #1,460,557 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mir vs moe

Shared letters: m. Private to "mir": ir. Private to "moe": eo.

"mir" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "moe" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mir" and "moe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mir" is a pronoun and "moe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mir" or "moe" show up more?
"mir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #62 in our German list, against #42,005 for "moe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,460,557 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mir" and "moe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moe vs mora". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,460,557 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