meu vs my, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#44,580
“meu” frequency rank: #2,938
“my” frequency rank: 47518
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	meu	my
Definition	Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe movoir.	Pronom personnel objet de la première personne du singulier : me.

Where the eye mixes meu and my

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

3 ch

meu

2 ch

Why the eye confuses meu with my

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meu is \məˈy\ while my is \məi\. 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 (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meu is recorded at frequency rank #44,580, classified as averb, pronounced \məˈy\. my is at rank #2,938, tagged as apron, pronounced \məi\.

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 47518, this pair ranks #186,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meu vs my

Shared letters: m. Private to "meu": eu. Private to "my": y.

"meu" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "my" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meu" for "my" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meu" is a verb and "my" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "meu" vs "my" - which ranks higher?

"my" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,938 in our French list, against #44,580 for "meu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "meu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "my" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #186,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"meu" and "my" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meu vs MWh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #186,336 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.