arruinanvsarruinarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,646
“arruinan” frequency rank
#10,975
“arruinar” frequency rank
42621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arruinan arruinar
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de arruinar. Causar destrucción y ruina.

Where the eye mixes arruinan and arruinar

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

8 ch
arruinan
8 ch
arruinar

Look-alike desk: arruinan vs arruinar

A purely visual mix-up. arruinan ([aˈrwinãn]) 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 a single letter - n in “arruinan” becomes r in “arruinar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arruinan is recorded at frequency rank #31,646, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈrwinãn]. 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 42621, this pair ranks #147,192 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arruinan vs arruinar

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

"arruinan" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC  ·  "arruinar" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arruinanarriunan · arruiann · arruinann · arruinnan · arrunian · aruinan · arurinan · raruinan
  • arruinararriunar · arruianr · arruinarr · arruinnar · arruinra · arruniar · aruinar · arurinar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arruinan" and "arruinar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([aˈrwinãn] versus [arwiˈnaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arruinan" 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 #31,646 for "arruinan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arruinan" 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 #147,192 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arruinan" and "arruinar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arruinada vs arruinan". 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 #147,192 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