mimvsmiraWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#113
“mim” frequency rank
#7,185
“mira” frequency rank
7298
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes mim and mira

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
mim
4 ch
mira

Why the eye confuses mim with mira

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mim is /ˈmĩ/ while mira is /ˈmi.ɾɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mim is recorded at frequency rank #113, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈmĩ/. mira is at rank #7,185, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmi.ɾɐ/.

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 7298, this pair ranks #66,867 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mim vs mira

Shared letters: im. Private to "mim": -. Private to "mira": ar.

"mim" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mira" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miraimra · miar · mmira · mria

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mim" for "mira" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mim" is a pronoun and "mira" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mim" or "mira" show up more?
"mim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #113 in our Portuguese list, against #7,185 for "mira". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mim" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,867 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mim" and "mira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mira vs mirra". 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 #66,867 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