meinvsmirConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#36,545
“mein” frequency rank
#17,334
“mir” frequency rank
53879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mein mir
Definition meu, minha, pronome possessivo da primeira pessoa do singular: milho

Letter map: mein vs mir

Shared letters muted; letters that set mein and mir apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mein
3 ch
mir

Grammar separator: mein vs mir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mein is apronoun and miranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mein is recorded at frequency rank #36,545, classified as apron, pronounced /maɪ̯n/ ouvir^(fonte ?). mir is at rank #17,334, tagged as anoun.

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 53879, this pair ranks #11,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mein vs mir

Shared letters: im. Private to "mein": en. Private to "mir": r.

"mein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mir" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meinemin · meinn · meni · mmein

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mein" for "mir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mein" is a pronoun and "mir" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mein" or "mir" show up more?
"mir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,334 in our Portuguese list, against #36,545 for "mein". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mein" and "mir".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mein" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mein" and "mir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mein vs mens". 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

Confusion rank #11,711 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