alejasvsaletasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alejas is a verb, aletas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alejas” is a verb and “aletas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,626
“alejas” frequency rank
#20,882
“aletas” frequency rank
61508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alejas aletas
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de indicativo de alejar o de alejarse. Forma del plural de aleta.

Where the eye mixes alejas and aletas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. alejas and aletas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
alejas
6 ch
aletas

Look-alike desk: alejas vs aletas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alejas is [aˈlexas] while aletas is [aˈlet̪as]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - j in “alejas” becomes t in “aletas”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alejas is recorded at frequency rank #40,626, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈlexas]. aletas is at rank #20,882, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aˈlet̪as].

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 61508, this pair ranks #55,221 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alejas vs aletas

Shared letters: aels. Private to "alejas": j. Private to "aletas": t.

"alejas" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "aletas" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alejas ← aeljas · aleajs · alejass · alejjas · alejsa · aljeas · allejas · laejas
  • aletas ← aeltas · aleats · aletass · aletsa · alettas · alletas · alteas · laetas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "alejas" and "aletas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alejas" is a verb and "aletas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "alejas" or "aletas" show up more?
"aletas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,882 in our Spanish list, against #40,626 for "alejas". 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 "alejas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aletas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,221 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alejas" and "aletas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alejas vs almenas". 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 #55,221 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