meinvsmengWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#22,939
“mein” frequency rank
#48,041
“meng” frequency rank
70980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mein meng
Definition Mon. Ma, la mienne.

Where the eye mixes mein and meng

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mein (CVVC) and meng (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mein
4 ch
meng

Why the eye confuses mein with meng

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mein is \maɪ̯n\ while meng is \meŋ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70980, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mein is recorded at frequency rank #22,939, classified as anadj, pronounced \maɪ̯n\. meng is at rank #48,041, tagged as apron, pronounced \meŋ\.

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 70980, this pair ranks #49,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mein vs meng

Shared letters: emn. Private to "mein": i. Private to "meng": g.

"mein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "meng" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mein ← emin · meinn · meni · mmein
  • meng ← emng · megn · mengg · menng · mmeng · mneg

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mein" and "meng" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mein" is an adjective and "meng" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mein" or "meng" show up more?
"mein" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,939 in our French list, against #48,041 for "meng". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mein" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meng" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mein" and "meng" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meng vs MSG". 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 #49,253 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