alióvsañoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,792
“alió” frequency rank
#100
“año” frequency rank
48892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alió año
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de aliar o de aliarse. Intervalo de tiempo que tarda la Tierra en hacer una revolución alrededor del Sol. El año se compone de 365 días y cuarto aproximadamente. Por eso cada cuatro años el año civil tiene un día más.

Where the eye mixes alió and año

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

4 ch
alió
3 ch
año

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alió is [aˈljo] while año is [ˈaɲo]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alió is recorded at frequency rank #48,792, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈljo]. año is at rank #100, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɲo].

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 48892, this pair ranks #111,942 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alió vs año

Shared letters: a. Private to "alió": iló. Private to "año": .

"alió" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "año" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alió" and "año" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alió" is a verb and "año" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alió" or "año"?
"año" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #100 in our Spanish list, against #48,792 for "alió". 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