ÁlavavsaldeaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#28,607
“Álava” frequency rank
#3,976
“aldea” frequency rank
32583
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Álava aldea
Definition Provincia de España, en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco. Su capital es Vitoria. Pueblo con poca población y, por lo general, sin leyes propias.

Where the eye mixes Álava and aldea

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

5 ch
Álava
5 ch
aldea

Look-alike desk: Álava vs aldea

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Álava is [ˈalaβ̞a] while aldea is [al̪ˈd̪ea]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Álava is recorded at frequency rank #28,607, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈalaβ̞a]. aldea is at rank #3,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced [al̪ˈd̪ea].

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 32583, this pair ranks #201,236 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Álava vs aldea

Shared letters: al. Private to "Álava": . Private to "aldea": de.

"Álava" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "aldea" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aldeaadlea · aldae · alddea · aleda · alldea · ladea

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Álava" for "aldea" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Álava" is a name and "aldea" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Álava" vs "aldea" - which ranks higher?
"aldea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,976 in our Spanish list, against #28,607 for "Álava". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Álava" and "aldea" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Álava" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aldea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,236 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Álava" and "aldea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Álava vs Aldama". 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 #201,236 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