Which to use
“clean” is an adjective and “crían” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,811
- “clean” frequency rank
- #30,409
- “crían” frequency rank
- 61220
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clean | crían |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Limpio. | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de criar o de criarse. |
Where the eye mixes clean and crían
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses clean with crían
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clean is /kliːn/ while crían is [ˈkɾiãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clean is recorded at frequency rank #30,811, classified as anadj, pronounced /kliːn/. crían is at rank #30,409, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkɾiãn].
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 61220, this pair ranks #56,236 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clean vs crían
Shared letters: acn. Private to "clean": el. Private to "crían": rí.
"clean" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "crían" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- clean ← cclean · celan · claen · cleann · clena · cllean · lcean
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clean" and "crían" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "clean" or "crían" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "clean" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,236 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clean" and "crían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs crían". 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 #56,236 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.