debenvsdudenTell them apart

Which to use

“deben” and “duden” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#510
“deben” frequency rank
#34,071
“duden” frequency rank
34581
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deben duden
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de deber. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de dudar.

Where the eye mixes deben and duden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. deben and duden follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
deben
5 ch
duden

Why the eye confuses deben with duden

A purely visual mix-up. deben ([ˈd̪eβ̞ẽn]) and duden ([ˈd̪uð̞ẽn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deben is recorded at frequency rank #510, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪eβ̞ẽn]. duden is at rank #34,071, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪uð̞ẽn].

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 34581, this pair ranks #190,644 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deben vs duden

Shared letters: den. Private to "deben": b. Private to "duden": u.

"deben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "duden" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deben ← dbeen · ddeben · debben · debenn · debne · deebn · deven · edben
  • duden ← dduden · dduen · dudden · dudenn · dudne · duedn · udden

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deben" and "duden" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪eβ̞ẽn] versus [ˈd̪uð̞ẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "deben" vs "duden" - which ranks higher?
"deben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #510 in our Spanish list, against #34,071 for "duden". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,644 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deben" and "duden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donen vs duden". 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 #190,644 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