dabanvsdadasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: daban is a verb, dadas is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“daban” is a verb and “dadas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,298
“daban” frequency rank
#8,099
“dadas” frequency rank
13397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daban dadas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de dar. Forma del femenino plural de dado, participio de dar.

Where the eye mixes daban and dadas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
daban
5 ch
dadas

Visual trap between daban and dadas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: daban is [ˈd̪aβ̞ãn] while dadas is [ˈd̪að̞as]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

daban is recorded at frequency rank #5,298, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪aβ̞ãn]. dadas is at rank #8,099, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [ˈd̪að̞as].

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 13397, this pair ranks #288,020 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of daban vs dadas

Shared letters: ad. Private to "daban": bn. Private to "dadas": s.

"daban" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dadas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dabanadban · daabn · dabann · dabban · dabna · davan · dbaan · ddaban
  • dadasaddas · daads · dadass · daddas · dadsa · ddaas · ddadas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "daban" and "dadas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "daban" is a verb and "dadas" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "daban" or "dadas" show up more?
"daban" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,298 in our Spanish list, against #8,099 for "dadas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "daban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dadas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,020 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daban" and "dadas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dadas vs donadas". 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 #288,020 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