mecvsmimWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,225
“mec” frequency rank
#113
“mim” frequency rank
8338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mec mim
Definition tranquilo caso oblíquo do pronome pessoal da primeira pessoa, usado após preposições (a, ante, após, até, contra, de, desde, entre, para, por, sem, sobre)

Letter map: mec vs mim

Shared letters muted; letters that set mec and mim apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mec
3 ch
mim

Part-of-speech tell for mec / mim

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mec is anadjective and mimapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mec is recorded at frequency rank #8,225, classified as anadj. 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 8338, this pair ranks #65,474 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mec vs mim

Shared letters: m. Private to "mec": ce. Private to "mim": i.

"mec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mim" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mec" and "mim" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mec" is an adjective and "mim" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mec" or "mim" show up more?
"mim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #113 in our Portuguese list, against #8,225 for "mec". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mec" and "mim".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mec" 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 #65,474 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mec" and "mim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mec". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,474 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