Which to use
“mate” is a noun and “mee” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,743
- “mate” frequency rank
- #28,288
- “mee” frequency rank
- 31031
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mate | mee |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate. | Obsolete spelling of me. |
Where the eye mixes mate and mee
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mate is /meɪt/ while mee is /miː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31031, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mate is recorded at frequency rank #2,743, classified as anoun, pronounced /meɪt/. mee is at rank #28,288, tagged as apron, pronounced /miː/.
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 31031, this pair ranks #349,625 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mate vs mee
Shared letters: em. Private to "mate": at. Private to "mee": -.
"mate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mee" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mate ← amte · mmate · mtae