mahvsmerConfusable pair

Quick tell: mah is a intj, mer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
#22,090
“mer” frequency rank
51510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mah mer
Definition usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção mar

Letter map: mah vs mer

Shared letters muted; letters that set mah and mer apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. mah and mer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
mah
3 ch
mer

Role in the sentence - mah and mer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mah is anintj and meranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mah is recorded at frequency rank #29,420, classified as anintj. mer is at rank #22,090, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɛʁ/.

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 51510, this pair ranks #13,547 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mah vs mer

Shared letters: m. Private to "mah": ah. Private to "mer": er.

"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mah" and "mer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mah" is an intj and "mer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mah" or "mer" show up more?
"mer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,090 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

You've compared "mah" and "mer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,547 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mah" and "mer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mah". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #13,547 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