dadovsdijoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#495
“dado” frequency rank
#184
“dijo” frequency rank
679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dado dijo
Definition Pequeño objeto con forma de cubo cuyas seis caras están marcadas con puntos que representan los números del uno al seis y que se usa en algunos juegos de azar. Por extensión, pieza poliédrica con las caras numeradas u otros símbolos. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de decir.

Where the eye mixes dado and dijo

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

4 ch
dado
4 ch
dijo

Visual trap between dado and dijo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dado is [ˈd̪að̞o] while dijo is [ˈd̪ixo]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dado is recorded at frequency rank #495, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪að̞o]. dijo is at rank #184, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪ixo].

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 679, this pair ranks #323,105 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dado vs dijo

Shared letters: do. Private to "dado": a. Private to "dijo": ij.

"dado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dijo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dadoaddo · daddo · daod · ddado · ddao
  • dijoddijo · dijjo · dioj · djio · idjo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dado" for "dijo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dado" is a noun and "dijo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dado" or "dijo"?
"dijo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #184 in our Spanish list, against #495 for "dado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dijo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #323,105 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dado" and "dijo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dado vs divo". 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 #323,105 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