maisvsmimWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#23
“mais” frequency rank
#113
“mim” frequency rank
136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mais mim
Definition avançadamente (designa aumento) 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 mais and mim

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

4 ch
mais
3 ch
mim

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mais is /mäjʃ/ 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 (adverb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mais is recorded at frequency rank #23, classified as anadv, pronounced /mäjʃ/. 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 136, this pair ranks #75,521 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mais vs mim

Shared letters: im. Private to "mais": as. Private to "mim": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maisamis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mais" and "mim" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mais" is an adverb and "mim" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mais" or "mim"?
"mais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23 in our Portuguese list, against #113 for "mim". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mais" 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 #75,521 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mais" and "mim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mim". 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