mahvsmateConfusable pair

Quick tell: mah is a intj, mate is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mah” is an intj and “mate” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
#7,048
“mate” frequency rank
36468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mah mate
Definition usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção sem brilho

Letter map: mah vs mate

Shared letters muted; letters that set mah and mate apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
mah
4 ch
mate

Role in the sentence - mah and mate

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mah is anintj and mateanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mah is recorded at frequency rank #29,420, classified as anintj. mate is at rank #7,048, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈma.tɨ/.

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 36468, this pair ranks #30,335 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mah vs mate

Shared letters: am. Private to "mah": h. Private to "mate": et.

"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mateamte · maet · matte · mmate · mtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mah" for "mate" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mah" is an intj and "mate" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mah" or "mate" show up more?
"mate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,048 in our Portuguese list, against #29,420 for "mah". 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 "mah" and "mate".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,335 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mah" and "mate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mah". 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 #30,335 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list