maisvsmilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mais is a adverb, mil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mais” is an adverb and “mil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23
“mais” frequency rank
#263
“mil” frequency rank
286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mais mil
Definition avançadamente (designa aumento) muitos, inúmeros, uma grande quantidade:

Where the eye mixes mais and mil

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

4 ch
mais
3 ch
mil

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mais is /mäjʃ/ while mil is /miw/, /mil/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mais is recorded at frequency rank #23, classified as anadv, pronounced /mäjʃ/. mil is at rank #263, tagged as anadj, pronounced /miw/, /mil/.

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 286, this pair ranks #75,352 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mais vs mil

Shared letters: im. Private to "mais": as. Private to "mil": l.

"mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mil" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maisamis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mais" and "mil" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mais" is an adverb and "mil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mais" or "mil"?
"mais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23 in our Portuguese list, against #263 for "mil". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "mais" and "mil". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,352 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mais" and "mil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mil". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list