debamosvsdebidosWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#26,789
“debamos” frequency rank
#29,581
“debidos” frequency rank
56370
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debamos debidos
Definition Primera persona del plural (nosotros, nosotras) del presente de subjuntivo de deber. Forma del plural de debido, participio de deber.

Where the eye mixes debamos and debidos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
debamos
7 ch
debidos

Look-alike desk: debamos vs debidos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: debamos is [d̪eˈβ̞amos] while debidos is [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞os]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56370, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debamos is recorded at frequency rank #26,789, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞amos]. debidos is at rank #29,581, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞os].

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 56370, this pair ranks #74,891 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of debamos vs debidos

Shared letters: bdeos. Private to "debamos": am. Private to "debidos": i.

"debamos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "debidos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • debamosdbeamos · ddebamos · deabmos · debammos · debamoss · debamso · debaoms · debbamos
  • debidosdbeidos · ddebidos · debbidos · debdios · debiddos · debidoss · debidso · debiods

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "debamos" and "debidos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "debamos" is a verb and "debidos" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "debamos" or "debidos" show up more?
"debamos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,789 in our Spanish list, against #29,581 for "debidos". 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 "debamos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "debidos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,891 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debamos" and "debidos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "debías vs debidos". 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 #74,891 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