Mai vs mês, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Mai” and “mês” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,369
“Mai” frequency rank: #444
“mês” frequency rank: 9813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Mai	mês
Definition	maio	cada uma das doze partes em que se divide o ano

Where the eye mixes Mai and mês

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

3 ch

Mai

3 ch

mês

Visual trap between Mai and mês

A purely visual mix-up. Mai (/maɪ̯/) and mês (/ˈmeʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mai is recorded at frequency rank #9,369, classified as anoun, pronounced /maɪ̯/. mês is at rank #444, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeʃ/.

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 9813, this pair ranks #63,499 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mai vs mês

Shared letters: m. Private to "Mai": ai. Private to "mês": sê.

"Mai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "mês" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mai" and "mês" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/maɪ̯/ versus /ˈmeʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "Mai" vs "mês" - which ranks higher?

"mês" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #444 in our Portuguese list, against #9,369 for "Mai". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Mai" and "mês" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "Mai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mês" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #63,499 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Mai" and "mês" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs Mai". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,499 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.