moravsstayWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,903
“mora” frequency rank
#19,048
“stay” frequency rank
68951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mora stay
Definition 1. Person Singular Aorist Indikativ Nichtadmirativ Aktiv zur Verbform marr „nehmen“ bleiben

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mora and stay apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
mora
4 ch
stay

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mora is anunknown and stayaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mora is recorded at frequency rank #49,903, classified as anunknown, pronounced […]. stay is at rank #19,048, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 68951, this pair ranks #491,720 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mora vs stay

Shared letters: a. Private to "mora": mor. Private to "stay": sty.

"mora" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "stay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • morammora · moar · morra · mroa · omra
  • staysaty · sstay · stayy · sttay · stya · tsay

Frequency comparison

mora#49,903
stay#19,048

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mora" and "stay" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mora" is an unknown and "stay" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mora" or "stay"?
"stay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,048 in our German list, against #49,903 for "mora". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering mora vs stay

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an unknown, it's “mora”; for a verb, it's “stay”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mora” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list