Which to use
“bailen” is a verb and “balón” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,149
- “bailen” frequency rank
- #5,800
- “balón” frequency rank
- 50949
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bailen | balón |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de bailar. | Pelota, una bola elástica utilizada esencialmente en deportes y otros juegos. |
Where the eye mixes bailen and balón
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bailen runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against balón's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between bailen and balón
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bailen is [ˈbajlẽn] while balón is [baˈlõn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bailen is recorded at frequency rank #45,149, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbajlẽn]. balón is at rank #5,800, tagged as anoun, pronounced [baˈlõn].
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 50949, this pair ranks #100,484 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bailen vs balón
Shared letters: abln. Private to "bailen": ei. Private to "balón": ó.
"bailen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "balón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bailen ← abilen · baieln · bailenn · baillen · bailne · balien · bbailen · bialen
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bailen" for "balón" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bailen" vs "balón" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "bailen" and "balón" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bailen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balón" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,484 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bailen" and "balón" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailen vs bain". 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 #100,484 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.