dabasvsdanésWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dabas is a verb, danés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dabas” is a verb and “danés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,042
“dabas” frequency rank
#15,064
“danés” frequency rank
49106
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dabas danés
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú, vos) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de dar. Persona que es originaria de Dinamarca.

Where the eye mixes dabas and danés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dabas and danés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
dabas
5 ch
danés

Visual trap between dabas and danés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dabas is [ˈd̪aβ̞as] while danés is [d̪aˈnes]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49106, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dabas is recorded at frequency rank #34,042, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪aβ̞as]. danés is at rank #15,064, tagged as anadj, pronounced [d̪aˈnes].

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 49106, this pair ranks #110,694 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dabas vs danés

Shared letters: ads. Private to "dabas": b. Private to "danés": né.

"dabas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "danés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dabas ← adbas · daabs · dabass · dabbas · dabsa · davas · dbaas · ddabas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dabas" for "danés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dabas" is a verb and "danés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dabas" vs "danés" - which ranks higher?
"danés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,064 in our Spanish list, against #34,042 for "dabas". 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 "dabas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "danés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,694 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dabas" and "danés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dabas vs dimas". 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 #110,694 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