meinvsmetenTell them apart

Quick tell: mein is a pronoun, meten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mein” is a pronoun and “meten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,294
“mein” frequency rank
#8,024
“meten” frequency rank
40318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mein meten
Definition Mi. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de meter.

Where the eye mixes mein and meten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mein runs 4 letters (CVVC) against meten's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mein
5 ch
meten

Visual trap between mein and meten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mein is [mai̮n] while meten is [ˈmet̪ẽn]. 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 (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mein is recorded at frequency rank #32,294, classified as apron, pronounced [mai̮n]. meten is at rank #8,024, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmet̪ẽn].

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 40318, this pair ranks #159,762 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mein vs meten

Shared letters: emn. Private to "mein": i. Private to "meten": t.

"mein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "meten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meinemin · meinn · meni · mien · mmein
  • metenemten · meetn · metenn · metten · mmeten · mteen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mein" and "meten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mein" is a pronoun and "meten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mein" vs "meten" - which ranks higher?
"meten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,024 in our Spanish list, against #32,294 for "mein". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "mein" and "meten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mein" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,762 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mein" and "meten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs mein". 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 #159,762 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