murvsmyConfusable pair

Quick tell: mur is a noun, my is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,531
“mur” frequency rank
#2,938
“my” frequency rank
4469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mur my
Definition Édification généralement verticale élevée en divers matériaux, pour enclore un espace, séparer des pièces, ou soutenir quelque chose. Pronom personnel objet de la première personne du singulier : me.

Where the eye mixes mur and my

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

3 ch
mur
2 ch
my

Visual trap between mur and my

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mur is \myʁ\ 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mur is recorded at frequency rank #1,531, classified as anoun, pronounced \myʁ\. 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 4469, this pair ranks #431,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mur vs my

Shared letters: m. Private to "mur": ru. Private to "my": y.

"mur" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "my" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mur" for "my" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mur" is a noun and "my" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mur" vs "my" - which ranks higher?
"mur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,531 in our French list, against #2,938 for "my". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mur" 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 #431,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mur" and "my" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "MWh vs my". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #431,533 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