Which to use
“arrived” and “arrives” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,682
- “arrived” frequency rank
- #5,933
- “arrives” frequency rank
- 7615
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arrived | arrives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of arrive | third-person singular simple present indicative of arrive |
Where the eye mixes arrived and arrives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. arrived and arrives follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between arrived and arrives
A purely visual mix-up. arrived (/əˈɹaɪvd/) and arrives (/əˈɹaɪvz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “arrived” becomes s in “arrives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arrived is recorded at frequency rank #1,682, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈɹaɪvd/. arrives is at rank #5,933, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈɹaɪvz/.
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 7615, this pair ranks #506,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of arrived vs arrives
Shared letters: aeirv. Private to "arrived": d. Private to "arrives": s.
"arrived" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "arrives" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "arrived" and "arrives" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "arrived" vs "arrives" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "arrived" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arrives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #506,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arrived" and "arrives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arrayed vs arrived". 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 #506,361 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.