maivsmoTell them apart

Quick tell: mai is a adverb, mo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mai” is an adverb and “mo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,397
“mai” frequency rank
#7,460
“mo” frequency rank
21857
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mai mo
Definition Jamás o nunca. Mi, mío.

Letter map: mai vs mo

Shared letters muted; letters that set mai and mo apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mai
2 ch
mo

Part-of-speech tell for mai / mo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mai is anadverb and moanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mai is recorded at frequency rank #14,397, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈmaj]. mo is at rank #7,460, tagged as anadj.

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 21857, this pair ranks #253,032 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mai vs mo

Shared letters: m. Private to "mai": ai. Private to "mo": o.

"mai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mo" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mai" and "mo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mai" is an adverb and "mo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mai" vs "mo" - which ranks higher?
"mo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,460 in our Spanish list, against #14,397 for "mai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mai" and "mo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,032 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mai" and "mo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mai vs mur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #253,032 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list