Mai vs mi, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#9,369
“Mai” frequency rank: #3,342
“mi” frequency rank: 12711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Mai	mi
Definition	maio	mim

Where the eye mixes Mai and mi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

Mai

2 ch

Visual trap between Mai and mi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mai is /maɪ̯/ while mi is /ˈmi/. 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 12711, 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/. mi is at rank #3,342, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈmi/.

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 12711, this pair ranks #59,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mai vs mi

Shared letters: im. Private to "Mai": a. Private to "mi": -.

"Mai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "mi" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Mai" or "mi" show up more?

"mi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,342 in our Portuguese list, against #9,369 for "Mai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Mai" and "mi" 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 "mi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #59,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Mai" and "mi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs Mai". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #59,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.