dañavsdañadaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,808
“daña” frequency rank
#18,217
“dañada” frequency rank
35025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daña dañada
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de dañar. Forma del femenino de dañado, participio de dañar.

Where the eye mixes daña and dañada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. daña runs 4 letters (CVCV) against dañada's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
daña
6 ch
dañada

Why the eye confuses daña with dañada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: daña is [ˈd̪aɲa] while dañada is [d̪aˈɲað̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “daña” sits inside “dañada”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

daña is recorded at frequency rank #16,808, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪aɲa]. dañada is at rank #18,217, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪aˈɲað̞a].

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 35025, this pair ranks #188,260 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of daña vs dañada

Shared letters: adñ. Private to "daña": -. Private to "dañada": -.

"daña" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dañada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "daña" and "dañada" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "daña" is a verb and "dañada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "daña" or "dañada"?
"daña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,808 in our Spanish list, against #18,217 for "dañada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "daña" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dañada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,260 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daña" and "dañada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "daña vs dont". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #188,260 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