Which to use
“mais” is an adverb and “may” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23
- “mais” frequency rank
- #5,226
- “may” frequency rank
- 5249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mais | may |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | avançadamente (designa aumento) | obter permissão. Também utilizado quando se deseja fazer um pedido, de maneira cortês. |
Where the eye mixes mais and may
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mais and may
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mais is /mäjʃ/ while may is /meɪ/. 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 (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mais is recorded at frequency rank #23, classified as anadv, pronounced /mäjʃ/. may is at rank #5,226, tagged as averb, pronounced /meɪ/.
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 5249, this pair ranks #69,414 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mais vs may
Shared letters: am. Private to "mais": is. Private to "may": y.
"mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "may" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mais ← amis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mais" and "may" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "mais" vs "may" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "mais" and "may" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "may" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #69,414 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mais" and "may" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs may". 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 #69,414 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.