brevevsbrevesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,888
“breve” frequency rank
#9,414
“breves” frequency rank
11302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature breve breves
Definition Que tiene poca extensión u ocupa poco espacio. Forma del plural de breve.

Where the eye mixes breve and breves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. breve runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against breves's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
breve
6 ch
breves

Look-alike desk: breve vs breves

A purely visual mix-up. breve ([ˈbɾeβ̞e]) and breves ([ˈbɾeβ̞es]) 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) - “breve” sits inside “breves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

breve is recorded at frequency rank #1,888, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbɾeβ̞e]. breves is at rank #9,414, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbɾeβ̞es].

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 11302, this pair ranks #295,587 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of breve vs breves

Shared letters: berv. Private to "breve": -. Private to "breves": s.

"breve" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "breves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breve ← bbreve · berve · brebe · breev · brevve · brreve · brvee · rbeve
  • breves ← bbreves · berves · brebes · breevs · brevess · brevse · brevves · brreves

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "breve" and "breves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbɾeβ̞e] versus [ˈbɾeβ̞es]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "breve" or "breves" show up more?
"breve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,888 in our Spanish list, against #9,414 for "breves". 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 "breve" and "breves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "breve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,587 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breve" and "breves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bremen vs breves". 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 #295,587 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