alavésvsavalesTell them apart

Quick tell: alavés is a adjective, avales is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alavés” is an adjective and “avales” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,628
“alavés” frequency rank
#37,973
“avales” frequency rank
69601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alavés avales
Definition Originario, relativo a, o propio de Álava, en España. Forma del plural de aval.

Where the eye mixes alavés and avales

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
alavés
6 ch
avales

Visual trap between alavés and avales

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alavés is [alaˈβ̞es] while avales is [aˈβ̞ales]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alavés is recorded at frequency rank #31,628, classified as anadj, pronounced [alaˈβ̞es]. avales is at rank #37,973, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aˈβ̞ales].

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 69601, this pair ranks #31,610 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alavés vs avales

Shared letters: alsv. Private to "alavés": é. Private to "avales": e.

"alavés" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "avales" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avalesaavles · abales · avaels · avaless · avalles · avalse · avlaes · avvales

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "alavés" and "avales" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alavés" is an adjective and "avales" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "alavés" or "avales" show up more?
"alavés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,628 in our Spanish list, against #37,973 for "avales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alavés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,610 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alavés" and "avales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "añades vs avales". 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 #31,610 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