arruinavsarruinarConfusable pair

Which to use

“arruina” and “arruinar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,893
“arruina” frequency rank
#10,975
“arruinar” frequency rank
31868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arruina arruinar
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de arruinar. Causar destrucción y ruina.

Where the eye mixes arruina and arruinar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
arruina
8 ch
arruinar

Why the eye confuses arruina with arruinar

A purely visual mix-up. arruina ([aˈrwina]) and arruinar ([arwiˈnaɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “arruina” sits inside “arruinar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arruina is recorded at frequency rank #20,893, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈrwina]. arruinar is at rank #10,975, tagged as averb, pronounced [arwiˈnaɾ].

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 31868, this pair ranks #204,902 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arruina vs arruinar

Shared letters: ainru. Private to "arruina": -. Private to "arruinar": -.

"arruina" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "arruinar" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arruinaarriuna · arruian · arruinna · arrunia · aruina · arurina · raruina
  • arruinararriunar · arruianr · arruinarr · arruinnar · arruinra · arruniar · aruinar · arurinar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "arruina" and "arruinar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([aˈrwina] versus [arwiˈnaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arruina" vs "arruinar" - which ranks higher?
"arruinar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,975 in our Spanish list, against #20,893 for "arruina". 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 "arruina" and "arruinar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arruina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arruinar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,902 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arruina" and "arruinar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arruga vs arruina". 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 #204,902 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