debimosvsdebióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,013
“debimos” frequency rank
#2,706
“debió” frequency rank
39719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debimos debió
Definition Primera persona del plural (nosotros, nosotras) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber.

Where the eye mixes debimos and debió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
debimos
5 ch
debió

Visual trap between debimos and debió

A purely visual mix-up. debimos ([d̪eˈβ̞imos]) and debió ([d̪eˈβ̞jo]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debimos is recorded at frequency rank #37,013, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞imos]. debió is at rank #2,706, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞jo].

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 39719, this pair ranks #163,017 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of debimos vs debió

Shared letters: bdei. Private to "debimos": mos. Private to "debió": ó.

"debimos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "debió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • debimosdbeimos · ddebimos · debbimos · debimmos · debimoss · debimso · debioms · debmios

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "debimos" and "debió" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([d̪eˈβ̞imos] versus [d̪eˈβ̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "debimos" vs "debió" - which ranks higher?
"debió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,706 in our Spanish list, against #37,013 for "debimos". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "debimos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "debió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #163,017 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debimos" and "debió" 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 #163,017 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