danvsdiganWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#586
“dan” frequency rank
#2,978
“digan” frequency rank
3564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dan digan
Definition En las artes marciales tales como el aikido, karate, yudo y otras de origen asiático, cada uno de los grados (primer dan, segundo dan, tercer dan, etc) de los cinturones negros. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de decir.

Where the eye mixes dan and digan

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

3 ch
dan
5 ch
digan

Visual trap between dan and digan

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dan is [ˈd̪ãn] while digan is [ˈd̪iɣ̞ãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dan is recorded at frequency rank #586, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ãn]. digan is at rank #2,978, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪iɣ̞ãn].

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 3564, this pair ranks #318,037 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dan vs digan

Shared letters: adn. Private to "dan": -. Private to "digan": gi.

"dan" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "digan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diganddigan · dgian · diagn · digann · diggan · idgan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dan" and "digan" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dan" is a noun and "digan" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dan" or "digan"?
"dan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #586 in our Spanish list, against #2,978 for "digan". 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 "dan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "digan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #318,037 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dan" and "digan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "digan 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 #318,037 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