mavsmeConfusable pair

Quick tell: ma is a symbol, me is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ma” is a symbol and “me” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#93
“ma” frequency rank
#60
“me” frequency rank
153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ma me
Definition Symbole du préfixe myria-, signifiant 10⁴. Pronom de la première personne du singulier en tant que complément d’objet direct. Accusatif de je.

Letter map: ma vs me

Shared letters muted; letters that set ma and me apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ma
2 ch
me

Role in the sentence - ma and me

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ma is asymbol and meapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “ma” becomes e in “me”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ma is recorded at frequency rank #93, classified as asymbol. me is at rank #60, tagged as apron, pronounced \mə\.

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 153, this pair ranks #440,048 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ma vs me

Shared letters: m. Private to "ma": a. Private to "me": e.

"ma" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "me" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ma" for "me" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ma" is a symbol and "me" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ma" vs "me" - which ranks higher?
"me" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #60 in our French list, against #93 for "ma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ma" and "me".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "me" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #440,048 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ma" and "me" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ma vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #440,048 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list