dadvsdíaTell them apart

Quick tell: dad is a verb, día is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dad” is a verb and “día” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,501
“dad” frequency rank
#76
“día” frequency rank
18577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dad día
Definition Segunda persona del plural (vosotros, vosotras) del imperativo afirmativo de dar. Tiempo que tarda la Tierra en dar una vuelta alrededor de su eje, equivalente a 24 horas.

Where the eye mixes dad and día

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dad
3 ch
día

Look-alike desk: dad vs día

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dad is [ˈd̪að̞] while día is [ˈd̪ia]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dad is recorded at frequency rank #18,501, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪að̞]. día is at rank #76, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ia].

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 18577, this pair ranks #267,322 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dad vs día

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dad": -. Private to "día": í.

"dad" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "día" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dad" for "día" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dad" is a verb and "día" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dad" vs "día" - which ranks higher?
"día" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our Spanish list, against #18,501 for "dad". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dad" and "día" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "día" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,322 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dad" and "día" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dad vs dade". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #267,322 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