masvsmiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mas” and “mi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,694
“mas” frequency rank
#1,445
“mi” frequency rank
11139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mas mi
Definition Ferme dans le midi de la France. Note de musique, troisième son de la gamme naturelle.

Where the eye mixes mas and mi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
mas
2 ch
mi

Look-alike desk: mas vs mi

A purely visual mix-up. mas (\mas\) and mi (\mi\) 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 11139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mas is recorded at frequency rank #9,694, classified as anoun, pronounced \mas\. mi is at rank #1,445, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi\.

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 11139, this pair ranks #410,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mas vs mi

Shared letters: m. Private to "mas": as. Private to "mi": i.

"mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mi" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mas" and "mi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mas\ versus \mi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mas" vs "mi" - which ranks higher?
"mi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,445 in our French list, against #9,694 for "mas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mas" and "mi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mas vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #410,307 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