mahvsmeuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mah is a determiner, meu is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mah” is a determiner and “meu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,266
“mah” frequency rank
#48,897
“meu” frequency rank
70163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mah meu
Definition Pronunciation spelling of my. Meum athamanticum, a European herb.

Letter map: mah vs meu

Shared letters muted; letters that set mah and meu apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. mah (CVC) and meu (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
mah
3 ch
meu

Role in the sentence - mah and meu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mah is adeterminer and meuanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mah is recorded at frequency rank #21,266, classified as adet. meu is at rank #48,897, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmjuː/.

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 70163, this pair ranks #51,633 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mah vs meu

Shared letters: m. Private to "mah": ah. Private to "meu": eu.

"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "meu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mah" and "meu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mah" is a determiner and "meu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mah" vs "meu" - which ranks higher?
"mah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,266 in our English list, against #48,897 for "meu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "mah" and "meu". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,633 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mah" and "meu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meu vs MMP". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,633 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list