men vs mens, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#6,318
“men” frequency rank: #47,487
“mens” frequency rank: 53805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	men	mens
Definition	pronome indefinido da terceira pessoa do singular, equivalente à partícula "se"	pessoa, humano, homem

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set men and mens apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

men

4 ch

mens

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: men is apronoun and mensanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “men” sits inside “mens”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

men is recorded at frequency rank #6,318, classified as apron. mens is at rank #47,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ mɛns ].

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 53805, this pair ranks #11,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of men vs mens

Shared letters: emn. Private to "men": -. Private to "mens": s.

"men" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

mens ← emns · menns · menss · mesn · mmens · mnes

Frequency comparison

men#6,318

mens#47,487

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "men" and "mens" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "men" is a pronoun and "mens" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "men" or "mens"?

"men" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,318 in our Portuguese list, against #47,487 for "mens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering men vs mens

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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