milvsmyTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#263
“mil” frequency rank
#1,440
“my” frequency rank
1703
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mil my
Definition muitos, inúmeros, uma grande quantidade: nós

Letter map: mil vs my

Shared letters muted; letters that set mil and my apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mil
2 ch
my

Role in the sentence - mil and my

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mil is anadjective and myapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mil is recorded at frequency rank #263, classified as anadj, pronounced /miw/, /mil/. my is at rank #1,440, tagged as apron.

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 1703, this pair ranks #73,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mil vs my

Shared letters: m. Private to "mil": il. Private to "my": y.

"mil" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "my" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mil" and "my" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mil" is an adjective and "my" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mil" or "my" show up more?
"mil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #263 in our Portuguese list, against #1,440 for "my". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mil" and "my".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "my" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mil" and "my" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs my". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,812 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