Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “debe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,148
- “dear” frequency rank
- #183
- “debe” frequency rank
- 39331
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | debe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Querido. | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de deber. |
Where the eye mixes dear and debe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dear and debe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is /dɪə/ while debe is [ˈd̪eβ̞e]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #39,148, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪə/. debe is at rank #183, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪eβ̞e].
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 39331, this pair ranks #165,117 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs debe
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "debe": b.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "debe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dear" and "debe" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dear" vs "debe" - which ranks higher?
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 "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "debe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,117 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "debe" 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 #165,117 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.