arruinadovsarruinanWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,627
“arruinado” frequency rank
#31,646
“arruinan” frequency rank
51273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arruinado arruinan
Definition Participio de arruinar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de arruinar.

Where the eye mixes arruinado and arruinan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. arruinado runs 9 letters (VCCVVCVCV) against arruinan's 8 (VCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
arruinado
8 ch
arruinan

Look-alike desk: arruinado vs arruinan

A purely visual mix-up. arruinado ([arwiˈnað̞o]) and arruinan ([aˈrwinãn]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arruinado is recorded at frequency rank #19,627, classified as averb, pronounced [arwiˈnað̞o]. arruinan is at rank #31,646, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈrwinãn].

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 51273, this pair ranks #98,715 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arruinado vs arruinan

Shared letters: ainru. Private to "arruinado": do. Private to "arruinan": -.

"arruinado" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCV  ·  "arruinan" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arruinadoarriunado · arruiando · arruinaddo · arruinaod · arruindao · arruinnado · arruniado · aruinado
  • arruinanarriunan · arruiann · arruinann · arruinnan · arrunian · aruinan · arurinan · raruinan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arruinado" for "arruinan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([arwiˈnað̞o] versus [aˈrwinãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arruinado" or "arruinan"?
"arruinado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,627 in our Spanish list, against #31,646 for "arruinan". 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 "arruinado" and "arruinan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arruinado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arruinan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,715 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arruinado" and "arruinan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arruinado vs arruinados". 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 #98,715 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