amabasvsamadasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: amabas is a verb, amadas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“amabas” is a verb and “amadas” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,369
“amabas” frequency rank
#48,198
“amadas” frequency rank
91567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amabas amadas
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú, vos) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de amar. Forma del femenino plural de amado.

Where the eye mixes amabas and amadas

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

6 ch
amabas
6 ch
amadas

Why the eye confuses amabas with amadas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amabas is [aˈmaβ̞as] while amadas is [aˈmað̞as]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “amabas” becomes d in “amadas”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amabas is recorded at frequency rank #43,369, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈmaβ̞as]. amadas is at rank #48,198, tagged as anadj, pronounced [aˈmað̞as].

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 91567, this pair ranks #1,908 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of amabas vs amadas

Shared letters: ams. Private to "amabas": b. Private to "amadas": d.

"amabas" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "amadas" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amabas ← aambas · amaabs · amabass · amabbas · amabsa · amavas · ambaas · ammabas
  • amadas ← aamdas · amaads · amadass · amaddas · amadsa · amdaas · maadas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "amabas" for "amadas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "amabas" is a verb and "amadas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "amabas" vs "amadas" - which ranks higher?
"amabas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,369 in our Spanish list, against #48,198 for "amadas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "amabas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amadas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,908 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amabas" and "amadas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amadas vs amarras". 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 #1,908 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