mas vs miau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“mas” is a conjunction and “miau” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25
“mas” frequency rank: #34,812
“miau” frequency rank: 34837
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mas	miau
Definition	conjunção adversativa, indica clara oposição entre ideias	minhau

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mas and miau apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

mas

4 ch

miau

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mas is /ˈmɐʃ/ while miau is /miˈaʊ̯/ ouvir^(fonte ?). 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 (conjunction vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mas is recorded at frequency rank #25, classified as aconj, pronounced /ˈmɐʃ/. miau is at rank #34,812, tagged as anintj, pronounced /miˈaʊ̯/ ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 34837, this pair ranks #32,338 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mas vs miau

Shared letters: am. Private to "mas": s. Private to "miau": iu.

"mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "miau" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

miau ← imau · maiu · miua · mmiau

Frequency comparison

mas#25

miau#34,812

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mas" and "miau" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mas" is a conjunction and "miau" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "mas" or "miau"?

"mas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25 in our Portuguese list, against #34,812 for "miau". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering mas vs miau

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a conjunction, it's “mas”; for an intj, it's “miau”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mas” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable