debe
Spanish, verb
debe is spelled D-E-B-E (4 letters) and appears 447 times per million words in written Spanish, the 185th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Debe is a Spanish verb meaning “third-person singular present indicative” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, debé is a different word: “second-person singular voseo imperative of deber”.
What does debe mean in English?
verb
- 1
third-person singular present indicative
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
second-person singular voseo imperative of deber
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Ingreso que recibe una empresa o incremento de los activos la empresa. 2. Figuradamente, lo que no ha podido demostrar una persona, a quien se le ha confiado un determinado puesto de trabajo.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of debe
- debes plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is debe in Spanish?
debe appears 447 times per million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).