Which to use
“debidos” is a participle and “debimos” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,581
- “debidos” frequency rank
- #37,013
- “debimos” frequency rank
- 66594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | debidos | debimos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forma del plural de debido, participio de deber. | Primera persona del plural (nosotros, nosotras) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber. |
Where the eye mixes debidos and debimos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. debidos and debimos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: debidos vs debimos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: debidos is [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞os] while debimos is [d̪eˈβ̞imos]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “debidos” becomes m in “debimos”, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
debidos is recorded at frequency rank #29,581, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞os]. debimos is at rank #37,013, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞imos].
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 66594, this pair ranks #39,455 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of debidos vs debimos
Shared letters: bdeios. Private to "debidos": -. Private to "debimos": m.
"debidos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "debimos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "debidos" and "debimos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "debidos" vs "debimos" - which ranks higher?
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 "debidos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "debimos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,455 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "debidos" and "debimos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "debías vs debimos". 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 #39,455 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.