arruinarvsarruinóTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,975
“arruinar” frequency rank
#23,672
“arruinó” frequency rank
34647
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes arruinar and arruinó

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
arruinar
7 ch
arruinó

Look-alike desk: arruinar vs arruinó

A purely visual mix-up. arruinar ([arwiˈnaɾ]) and arruinó ([arwiˈno]) 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 34647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arruinar is recorded at frequency rank #10,975, classified as averb, pronounced [arwiˈnaɾ]. arruinó is at rank #23,672, tagged as averb, pronounced [arwiˈno].

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 34647, this pair ranks #190,329 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arruinar vs arruinó

Shared letters: ainru. Private to "arruinar": -. Private to "arruinó": ó.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arruinararriunar · arruianr · arruinarr · arruinnar · arruinra · arruniar · aruinar · arurinar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arruinar" and "arruinó" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([arwiˈnaɾ] versus [arwiˈno]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "arruinar" or "arruinó" show up more?
"arruinar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,975 in our Spanish list, against #23,672 for "arruinó". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arruinar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arruinó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,329 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arruinar" and "arruinó" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arruinan vs arruinó". 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 #190,329 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