ahivsasíWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ahi is a noun, así is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ahi” is a noun and “así” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,101
“ahi” frequency rank
#55
“así” frequency rank
2156
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ahi así
Definition Fuego De este modo o forma.

Where the eye mixes ahi and así

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ahi
3 ch
así

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ahi is [ˈa.hi] while así is [aˈsi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ahi is recorded at frequency rank #2,101, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈa.hi]. así is at rank #55, tagged as anadv, pronounced [aˈsi].

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 2156, this pair ranks #320,873 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ahi vs así

Shared letters: a. Private to "ahi": hi. Private to "así": .

"ahi" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "así" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ahi" and "así" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ahi" is a noun and "así" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ahi" or "así"?
"así" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #55 in our Spanish list, against #2,101 for "ahi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list