manovsmayTell them apart

Which to use

“mano” and “may” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#342
“mano” frequency rank
#6,205
“may” frequency rank
6547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mano may
Definition Extremidad prensil y articulada en el extremo distal del brazo de los antropoides. Mayo.

Where the eye mixes mano and may

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mano
3 ch
may

Look-alike desk: mano vs may

A purely visual mix-up. mano ([ˈmano]) and may ([ˈmɑj]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mano is recorded at frequency rank #342, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmano]. may is at rank #6,205, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɑj].

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 6547, this pair ranks #310,440 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mano vs may

Shared letters: am. Private to "mano": no. Private to "may": y.

"mano" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "may" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manoamno · manno · maon · mmano · mnao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mano" and "may" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmano] versus [ˈmɑj]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mano" or "may"?
"mano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #342 in our Spanish list, against #6,205 for "may". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "may" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,440 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mano" and "may" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "may vs mur". 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 #310,440 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