Which to use
“año” is a noun and “así” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #100
- “año” frequency rank
- #55
- “así” frequency rank
- 155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | año | así |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | De este modo o forma. |
Where the eye mixes año and así
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: año is [ˈaɲo] while así is [aˈsi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
año is recorded at frequency rank #100, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɲo]. así is at rank #55, tagged as anadv, pronounced [aˈsi].
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 155, this pair ranks #323,729 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of año vs así
Shared letters: a. Private to "año": oñ. Private to "así": sí.
"año" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "así" · 3 letters · shape VCV