meuvsmiesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#44,860
“meu” frequency rank
#37,727
“mies” frequency rank
82587
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meu mies
Definition Mi. Cualquier espiga de cereal madura, lista para ser recolectada, de cuya semilla puede obtenerse harina para hacer pan, etc.

Where the eye mixes meu and mies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. meu runs 3 letters (CVV) against mies's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
meu
4 ch
mies

Visual trap between meu and mies

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meu is [ˈmew] while mies is [ˈmjes]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meu is recorded at frequency rank #44,860, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmew]. mies is at rank #37,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmjes].

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 82587, this pair ranks #9,082 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of meu vs mies

Shared letters: em. Private to "meu": u. Private to "mies": is.

"meu" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mies ← imes · meis · miess · mise · mmies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meu" and "mies" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meu" is an adjective and "mies" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "meu" or "mies"?
"mies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,727 in our Spanish list, against #44,860 for "meu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "meu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,082 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meu" and "mies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meu 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 #9,082 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