darvsdearTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#263
“dar” frequency rank
#39,148
“dear” frequency rank
39411
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dar dear
Definition Traspasar algo a otra persona de forma gratuita. Querido.

Where the eye mixes dar and dear

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

3 ch
dar
4 ch
dear

Why the eye confuses dar with dear

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dar is [ˈd̪aɾ] while dear is /dɪə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39411, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dar is recorded at frequency rank #263, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪aɾ]. dear is at rank #39,148, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪə/.

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 39411, this pair ranks #164,617 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dar vs dear

Shared letters: adr. Private to "dar": -. Private to "dear": e.

"dar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dearddear · dearr · dera · edar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dar" and "dear" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dar" is a verb and "dear" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dar" or "dear" show up more?
"dar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #263 in our Spanish list, against #39,148 for "dear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,617 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dar" and "dear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dear vs Deva". 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 #164,617 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