menvsmerConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#6,318
“men” frequency rank
#22,090
“mer” frequency rank
28408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature men mer
Definition pronome indefinido da terceira pessoa do singular, equivalente à partícula "se" mar

Letter map: men vs mer

Shared letters muted; letters that set men and mer apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
men
3 ch
mer

Role in the sentence - men and mer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: men is apronoun and meranoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - n in “men” becomes r in “mer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

men is recorded at frequency rank #6,318, classified as apron. mer is at rank #22,090, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɛʁ/.

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 28408, this pair ranks #40,403 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of men vs mer

Shared letters: em. Private to "men": n. Private to "mer": r.

"men" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "men" and "mer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "men" is a pronoun and "mer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "men" vs "mer" - which ranks higher?
"men" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,318 in our Portuguese list, against #22,090 for "mer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "men" vs "mer" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "men" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,403 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "men" and "mer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,403 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