aguavsAsuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: agua is a noun, Asu is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agua” is a noun and “Asu” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#253
“agua” frequency rank
#46,344
“Asu” frequency rank
46597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agua Asu
Definition Sustancia transparente, inodora e insípida, que se encuentra en estado líquido a temperatura y presión estándar, y cuya composición molecular es de dos átomos de hidrógeno por uno de oxígeno. Apellido.

Where the eye mixes agua and Asu

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

4 ch
agua
3 ch
Asu

Visual trap between agua and Asu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agua is [ˈaɣ̞wa] while Asu is [ˈasu]. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agua is recorded at frequency rank #253, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɣ̞wa]. Asu is at rank #46,344, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈasu].

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 46597, this pair ranks #124,822 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agua vs Asu

Shared letters: au. Private to "agua": g. Private to "Asu": s.

"agua" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "Asu" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aguaagau · aggua · auga · gaua

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "agua" and "Asu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agua" is a noun and "Asu" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agua" or "Asu"?
"agua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #253 in our Spanish list, against #46,344 for "Asu". 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 "agua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Asu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,822 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agua" and "Asu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Asu vs atl". 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 #124,822 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list