Which to use
“mus” and “must” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,072
- “mus” frequency rank
- #11,712
- “must” frequency rank
- 33784
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mus | must |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs musen | 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs musen |
Where the eye mixes mus and must
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mus vs must
A purely visual mix-up. mus ([muːs]) and must ([muːst]) 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 extra letter(s) - “mus” sits inside “must”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mus is recorded at frequency rank #22,072, classified as averb, pronounced [muːs]. must is at rank #11,712, tagged as averb, pronounced [muːst].
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 33784, this pair ranks #1,678,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mus vs must
Shared letters: msu. Private to "mus": -. Private to "must": t.
"mus" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "must" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- must ← mmust · msut · mustt · muts · umst
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mus" and "must" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "mus" or "must" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mus" and "must" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "must" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,678,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mus" and "must" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs mus". 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 #1,678,189 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.