amovsazTell them apart

Quick tell: amo is a noun, az is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“amo” is a noun and “az” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,233
“amo” frequency rank
#31,221
“az” frequency rank
32454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amo az
Definition Hombre que está a la cabeza o a cargo de algo, especialmente de una casa, hacienda. animal o familia. Poco.

Where the eye mixes amo and az

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

3 ch
amo
2 ch
az

Look-alike desk: amo vs az

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amo is [ˈamo] while az is [ɑz]. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amo is recorded at frequency rank #1,233, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈamo]. az is at rank #31,221, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ɑz].

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 32454, this pair ranks #201,853 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of amo vs az

Shared letters: a. Private to "amo": mo. Private to "az": z.

"amo" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "az" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "amo" for "az" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "amo" is a noun and "az" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "amo" or "az" show up more?
"amo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,233 in our Spanish list, against #31,221 for "az". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "amo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "az" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,853 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amo" and "az" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atl vs az". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #201,853 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