maiovsmimWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#523
“maio” frequency rank
#113
“mim” frequency rank
636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maio mim
Definition quinto mês do ano civil, formado por 31 dias caso oblíquo do pronome pessoal da primeira pessoa, usado após preposições (a, ante, após, até, contra, de, desde, entre, para, por, sem, sobre)

Where the eye mixes maio and mim

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

4 ch
maio
3 ch
mim

Look-alike desk: maio vs mim

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maio is /ˈmaj.ju/ while mim is /ˈmĩ/. 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 636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maio is recorded at frequency rank #523, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaj.ju/. mim is at rank #113, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈmĩ/.

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 636, this pair ranks #75,033 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maio vs mim

Shared letters: im. Private to "maio": ao. Private to "mim": -.

"maio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mim" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maioamio · maoi · miao · mmaio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maio" for "mim" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maio" is a noun and "mim" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maio" vs "mim" - which ranks higher?
"mim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #113 in our Portuguese list, against #523 for "maio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "maio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,033 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maio" and "mim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maio". 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 #75,033 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