matvsmimWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,805
“mat” frequency rank
#113
“mim” frequency rank
21918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mat mim
Definition casamento 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 mat and mim

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
mat
3 ch
mim

Look-alike desk: mat vs mim

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mat is /mat/ while mim is /ˈmĩ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mat is recorded at frequency rank #21,805, classified as anoun, pronounced /mat/. 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 21918, this pair ranks #48,230 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mat vs mim

Shared letters: m. Private to "mat": at. Private to "mim": i.

"mat" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mim" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mat" and "mim" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mat" is a noun and "mim" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mat" or "mim"?
"mim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #113 in our Portuguese list, against #21,805 for "mat". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "mat" and "mim" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mat" 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 #48,230 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mat" and "mim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mat". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #48,230 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