mirvsmyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mir” and “my” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#62
“mir” frequency rank
#2,119
“my” frequency rank
2181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mir my
Definition Dativ der ersten Person Singular possessives Personalpronomen für die 1. Person Singular; mein

Where the eye mixes mir and my

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

3 ch
mir
2 ch
my

Look-alike desk: mir vs my

A purely visual mix-up. mir ([miːɐ̯]) and my ([maɪ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mir is recorded at frequency rank #62, classified as apron, pronounced [miːɐ̯]. my is at rank #2,119, tagged as apron, pronounced [maɪ].

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 2181, this pair ranks #2,002,921 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mir vs my

Shared letters: m. Private to "mir": ir. Private to "my": y.

"mir" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "my" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mir" for "my" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([miːɐ̯] versus [maɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mir" vs "my" - which ranks higher?
"mir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #62 in our German list, against #2,119 for "my". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mir" and "my" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "my" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,002,921 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mir" and "my" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mir vs mora". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,002,921 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